Best hotels in the Cotswolds for a chocolate-box country getaway
This quaint corner of England is home to cosy hotels and some culinary surprises, among them artisan Israeli baking, hip burger vans and fragrant Asian broths
Looking for where to stay in the Cotswolds? Want to find Cotswolds hotels for foodies? Check out our guide to the best places to eat, drink and stay in the Cotswolds.... The Cotswolds is all your chocolate-box fantasies rolled into one – honey-hued cottages, gardens brimming with hollyhocks huddled around duck-paddled ponds. The names are as pretty as the scenery: Moreton-in-Marsh, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold. Even the local rare breeds (Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs) have a bonny ring. The Cotswolds is Cider with Rosie country: a bucolic idyll packaged for tourists who traipse here to mooch around antique shops and take afternoon tea. The Cotswolds is quintessentially quaint. It’s also unexpectedly vast. Count its counties: Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, plus corners of Wiltshire, Somerset, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. From north to south it’s a 100-mile schlep. Off-the-beaten-track is a concept the Cotswolds lost long ago, but its central belt – a lopsided oblong with Burford, Cheltenham, Stroud and Lechlade at the corners – does fly slightly below the radar. Check our our guide to the best restaurants in the Cotswolds for all the must visit places to eat and drink during your visit. For more travel inspiration, check out our guide to the best Scottish hotels, best UK boutique hotels, best UK spa hotels for food lovers or best European hidden gem hotels. Where to stay in the Cotswolds for foodies The Bell at Charlbury, Daylesford Rooms start at £194 per night, based on two adults sharing. Check availability on their website. The newest of its stable of pubs with rooms, The Bell has all the hallmarks of a Daylesford bolthole: a commitment to local suppliers, largely British menu and cute motif (see the bell on plates, menus and staff T-shirts). The 17th-century building is home to a dozen cosy bedrooms, with a contemporary barn at the rear. There’s more to the pub than a smart market town boozer. Discreetly positioned behind the main building, The Barn serves weekend wood-fired feasting menus – rotisserie chicken, roasts, whole lobster. In summer there’s an additional dining space in The Bell’s acre of apple orchard. The pub’s small, welcoming dining room serves classics like a half pint of prawns, soups, salads, cheeseburger, fish pie, sticky toffee pudding and crumbles, with locally farmed ingredients. Daily specials range from the luxurious, including a chateaubriand for two or whole roasted brill, to a simple porchetta and apple sauce bap. Beers on tap are from family-owned Hook Norton and Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone, Daylesford’s own cider, gins and English sparkling wine. Exposed brick, embroidered bedspreads and reclaimed wooden furniture create a homely, rustic atmosphere. And four posters, red stripes, and crisp blue and white checks feel very British. Rooms start at £194 per night, based on two adults sharing. Check availability on their website. Bower House, Shipston-on-Stour Doubles from £127, check rates and availability at booking.com or bower.house Tucked into the very centre of Shipston-on-Stour, The Bower House makes a compelling case for this corner of Warwickshire as a destination in its own right. Just 10 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon, it combines a restaurant and five bedrooms with the kind of quietly confident hospitality that feels earned rather than performed. Inside, exposed brick, warm timber and low lighting create an atmosphere that is sophisticated without being stiff. Upstairs the bedrooms are individually decorated and properly comfortable – Hypnos mattresses, Egyptian cotton, bespoke beds – and if you're lucky a freestanding bath. Head chef Leo Kattou's cooking is produce-led, with menus that shift to reflect what's available and at its best. A beef tartare arrives with a small scoop of caviar on top – a classic dish made even more luxurious. Lamb with asparagus, wild garlic and stuffed morels follows and is perfectly executed. The wine list, developed with The Stroud Wine Company and the town's own Sheldon's, mixes familiar producers with smaller vineyards – the team is incredibly knowledgeable so feel free to lean on them for recommendations. Breakfast is delicious whether you are going for the cooked offering or something lighter, it’s best accompanied with a glass of apple juice pressed from the owner's own orchard. Doubles from £127, check rates and availability at booking.com or bower.house The Fox at Oddington From £225 per night, check availability at thefoxatoddington.com The newest addition to the Daylesford stable, the group’s pared-back aesthetic is tempered here with a light-hearted foxy theme on everything from topiary to tableware. Its airy bar and Saddle Room is built around a lively open kitchen where chefs knock out the kind of relaxed, seasonal food we could eat every day. Sustainability is built into all Daylesford does, most visibly in the pub’s living roof, planted with wildflowers and herbs, and acting as a nectar source for bees. Chef Alan Gleeson’s menu of modern classics encourages sharing, from a half-pint of prawns and some Daylesford cheese to the full three courses. Small plates including tuna tartare with soy and ginger, and heritage tomatoes teamed with feta and mint are a promising start. A decent, tender pork chop comes with greens and apple; a simple plaice with seaweed butter and Ratte potatoes. Flatbread with lardo, anchovy and salsa verde is a must-try, as is Korean fried chicken. There’s usually a fruit tart and a dark chocolate mousse with pistachio biscotti. At breakfast, The Fox is flooded with light. Oversized plants and artfully placed saddles all echo the Gloucestershire location. Omelette Arnold Bennett, a rich haddock and cheese concoction, is served with hollandaise in a mini skillet; french toast with poached apricots is equally luxurious, as are breakfast brioche rolls. Wood-beamed rooms are decorated with hunting scenes and local wildlife from local artists. Sheepskins, woollen rugs and quilted blankets add a cosy touch to crisp white bedding. Some rooms include a free-standing bath, showers are powerful and fragrant with sage and geranium Bamford botanical products. Check availability at thefoxatoddington.com Dormy House, Broadway From £215 per night, check availability at mrandmrssmith.com Despite the grandeur, this 17th-century Cotswolds farmhouse, transformed into a foodie spa hotel, is as welcoming as it is luxurious. There are 38 bedrooms spread across the main house and farmhouse outbuildings. Two Hot Tub Suites, in individual cottages with their own private patios, are decorated with delicate floral-printed wallpaper, upcycled furniture and Kilner jars filled with ginger biscuits. A quaint feel overall, although there are modern additions: tablets instead of books, for example. The Potting Shed serves hearty pub-style food (think spiced cauliflower pie and double-patty burgers) in a low-key setting, while The Back Garden celebrates homegrown produce with simple, seasonal dishes. At the latter, you’ll eat at sleek marble tables, usually with a view of Dormy House’s vegetable plots. Check availability at mrandmrssmith.com The Wheatsheaf, Northleach From £117 per night, check availability on booking.com As glam as it is cosy, former coaching inn The Wheatsheaf Inn, set in a restored 17th-century Cotswold stone building, has three log fires, as well as a wood-burning stove in the snug. Get comfortable with some craft beer or a bottle of wine from the 300-strong list. There’s culinary clout too with seasonal, daily changing dishes, such as grilled whole lemon sole, grapes, capers and limes, or meltingly rare beef from Cirencester. The 14 stylish rooms here are more bourgeois bolthole than humble inn. Check availability on booking.com The Rectory Hotel, Crudwell From £120 per night, check availability at mrandmrssmith.com An 18th century former rectory in the heart of picturesque Crudwell, recently refurbished The Rectory Hotel is all about intimate dinners, fireside cocktails and country walks followed by hearty food. Originally the rectory to the village church, this ancient stone building oozes relaxed country manor. Homemade cordial welcomes rosy-cheeked walkers into the drawing room, where you can warm up by the log fire and sink into pretty peacock feather-hued cushions. The 18 rooms are all unique, with the first floor hosting more spacious rooms, and the second floor benefitting from exposed oak beams. The team at The Rectory Hotel has freshened up the interiors to preserve original features (little fireplaces, sash windows, panelled walls) and antiques, but add a checklist of little hotel luxuries (Robert’s Radios, tea and coffee from local roasters UE and Jeeves and Jericho). Beds are like huge armchairs, with velvet curved headboards in mustard yellow and forest green. The kitchen focuses on refreshed classics. Unfussy comfort food includes fish pie, and pretty salads using fresh produce grown in the allotments behind The Potting Shed pub over the road (sister business to the hotel). The grill section includes flat-iron chicken with lemon, aioli and fries, Chateaubriand for two with roast beetroot, crispy shallots and wild rocket, and grilled catch of the day (turbot from Dorset on our visit, served with buttery Lime Regis new potatoes, watercress and a ramekin of Hollandaise). The breakfast spread, taken in The Glasshouse overlooking the gardens, is impressive. Graze on homemade granola, fresh fruits, mini pastries and ham and cheese before taking your pick from the made-to-order hot menu (French toast, avocado on sourdough, eggs any style) and topping up from the DIY bloody mary station. Check availability at mrandmrssmith.com Artist Residence, South Leigh From £120 per night, check availability at booking.com In a sleepy village in rural Oxfordshire Justin and Charlie Salisbury, the duo behind quirky Artist Residence hotel group, have restored a 16th century Cotswold-stone farmhouse and opened it as their fourth property, Mr Hanbury’s Masons Arms. A community-focused pub, with five perfectly put-together bedrooms upstairs, Mr Hanbury’s is split into two areas – a cosy bar area with a classic pub menu and a more sophisticated dining room where guests can enjoy a fine dining menu. Each of the five bedrooms here has its own unique quirks. Room number 4 boasts a ginormous free-standing copper bath to sink into with Bramley bubble bath, while number 2 has Sri Lankan tea chests as bedside tables and a window that looks out onto the vegetable patch. Check availability at booking.com Thyme, Southrop From £325 per night, check availability at booking.com Set deep in the rolling Cotswolds countryside, in the quiet village of Southrop, Thyme is exactly what you want from a rural escape. A 150-acre estate, it is home to a cookery school, pub, holiday cottages, cocktail bar and restaurant while the 15th century manor house at its heart (and various outlying barns) is now a boutique hotel. The renovation of the latter was a labour of love for its energetic, and charming, owner Caryn Hibbert and it shows. Crunch over a gravel drive and you arrive at an impressive, honey-stone Tithe Barn, home to The Baa (yes, really) with its great cocktail list. Not a bad way to kick off a stay. Check availability at booking.com The Swan, Ascott-under-Wychwood From £100 per night, check availability at booking.com This 16th-century half-timbered inn, at the heart of pretty Ascott-under-Wychwood, has been revamped by hotel gurus Sam and Georgie Pearman (the couple are also behind the spruced-up Talbot in Malton). It bears all their hip-yet-homely hallmarks, including playful, eclectic furnishings and art, sink-into beds and in-room baths stocked with 100 Acres Apothecary products made (by Georgie) from natural botanicals. You’ll also find the usual attention to detail, from swan-shaped room keys crafted at the local forge to homemade cookies in bedrooms. British to the core, it appeals to locals, young and old, and city foodies seeking a rural weekend escape. Seasonality and creativity drives head chef Adam Abbott, previously of The Wild Rabbit in Kingham. You only have to look at his pork pies, made using rare-breed meats from Herefordshire’s Huntsham Court Farm, to see that he doesn’t compromise on quality. Vegetarians will be happy here, too – starters might include broad bean hummus topped with spiced aubergine and grated hazelnuts, served with a platter of mixed sourdough breads from nearby Chipping Norton. From the choice of mains, try The Swan’s signature smoked haddock Monte Carlo and a wholesome vegetables-and-grains bowl. Drinks are local where possible. On tap at the bar is Bobby Beer, Cotswold Lager and Pearson’s cider. Local brewery Hook Norton rules the roost when it comes to beer, and for vodka, there’s Black Cow from Dorset. Check availability at booking.com Sign of the Angel Inn, Lacock From £115 per night, check availability at booking.com Dating back to the 15th century, this former coaching inn sits in the heart of Lacock village. With its rough stone walls, well-worn tiled floors, moody oak-panelled snugs and imposing inglenook fireplace it’s a cosy setting for some hearty West Country food and an early night. Out at the back, a garden leads to a stream and a paddock. West Country ingredients are put to good use in the regularly changing, seasonal menu from the 2 AA rosette kitchen. Expect local game in the autumn, hunks of blushing lamb in the spring and plenty of veg, potato and pastry all year round. Whenever you visit, though, expect to kick things off with homemade bread, slabs of cold, salted butter, oil and balsamic vinegar and a little canapé – on our visit a comforting offering of sliced white enriched with blue cheese, brown flecked with rocket and lemon, and mouthfuls of pressed rabbit, apple and fiercely pickled red onions. There are five bedrooms at Sign of the Angel and each is comfortably chic. With little else to do in the village after dark – there’s only one other pub within walking distance – prepare for an early night. At the foot of our sink-into bed, topped with duck down and feather pillows and fringed with a homely grey blanket, thick, large towels beg to be used after a long soak in the tub. Check availability at booking.com The Bell Inn, Lechlade From £67 per night, check availability at booking.com There are plenty of contemporary-chic gastropubs in the Cotswolds but not all manage to retain the laid-back feel of a village boozer after their Farrow & Ball transformations. Happily The Bell, a 17th-century inn in pretty Langford, on the fringes of west Oxfordshire, does. Its combination of rustic, wood-fired comfort food, stone-flagged dining rooms, and affable service, makes it a congenial space to unwind. Eight stylishly simple bedrooms mean you can settle down to sample that cooking, relaxed in the knowledge you don’t have to drive anywhere afterwards. Digest with a stroll to Langford’s pink-towered Saxon church across the fields, then enjoy an early night. Check availability at booking.com Barnsley House, Barnsley From £309 per night, check availability on booking.com Once the home of renowned garden designer Rosemary Verey, the gardens of this luxury hotel remain a highlight. Produce picked by the chefs take pride of place in dishes such as tangy Barnsley House pickled beetroot, creamy goat’s cheese curd and candied hazelnuts. Amid such ultra-local provenance it’s easy to be caught off-guard when you discover that head chef, Francesco Volgo, is Italian and that the house speciality is vincisgrassi, a rich mushroom and truffle oil lasagne. Wandering up to bed after dinner there were two surprises in store: a packet of Little Gem lettuce seeds on the pillow instead of chocolate and, in the fridge, a handful of fresh mint for tea – reminders that outside the window was a fruitful English country garden. Check availability on booking.com The Wild Rabbit, Kingham Check rates and availability at thewildrabbit.co.uk In the heart of the Cotswolds on the Daylesford estate, The Wild Rabbit is a modern British inn serving seasonal, hyper-local food and offering 12 bedrooms (all, like the inn itself, named after creatures found in the English countryside). There are also two cosy cottages just a short walk away and, as of late 2018, three more opposite the inn. While it attracts an out-of-town crowd, at its heart The Wild Rabbit is a country pub, albeit one with Hugo Guinness block prints on the walls and tea lights flickering on farmhouse-style tables. It acts as a kind of sociable living room for the locals (the notice board was calling out for village bakers on our visit), with squidgy leather sofas taken up by blush-faced walkers escaping the cold, shaggy dogs lounging in front of the crackling fire and families wrapping their hands around mugs of hot chocolate and hot buttered rum. Choose between 12 calm, airy bedrooms above the pub, or, for larger groups, take your pick of the cottages, scattered in the surrounding village of Kingham. All showcase Daylesford’s signature pared-backed country style (think exposed beams, sash windows, duck-egg blue stable doors and lots of muted shades of cream, taupe and stone) but peppered with luxuries; if you’re taken with the decor you can buy everything from the egg cups, chopping boards, throws and toiletries at the Daylesford shop in Kingham (and online, here). Check rates and availability at thewildrabbit.co.uk No 131, Cheltenham From £120 per night, check availability on booking.com Stay in the Cotswold oblong’s northern corner at No 131 in Cheltenham. An elegant Grade-II Georgian hotel with a restaurant and handful of quirky rooms (ours had a free-standing tin bath and a knitted cosy on the teapot), it’s part of the Cotswolds-based Lucky Onion group, a clutch of restaurants, hotels, pubs and b&bs owned by Julian Dunkerton. Much of the restaurant’s produce is sourced from local farmers and producers (order eggs for breakfast and they’ll have come from Cackleberry Farm in Burford). Our lunch of Wiltshire lamb fillet with merguez sausage, caponata and tzatziki, fregola primavera (a vibrant spring green) and beets was a riot of colour and flavour. Check availability on booking.com The Painswick, Painswick From £171 per night, check availability at booking.com With affordable room rates and a playful aesthetic (note the neon sign in the reception area), this is designed as a younger, more affordable addition to the Calcot Collection’s properties (and, possibly, a Cotswolds riposte to The Pig hotels). Bedrooms are decorated in muted natural shades, lounges come with open fires and mountains of cushions, a lawn is perfect for sprawling on sunny days, there are two treatment rooms for facials or massages and, in the hallway, scrolls of printed walking routes and a stack of help-yourself wellies invite guests to tramp out into the neighbouring Slad Valley (of Laurie Lee fame). Check availability at booking.com The Churchill Arms, Paxford From £100 per night, check availability at booking.com Set the SatNav and, whichever way you approach The Churchill Arms in Paxford, you’ll travel along winding roads, lined with thatched cottages, through sleepy Cotswold villages. Your destination is equally quaint – a honey-hued pub dating back to the 17th century but re-opened after a sympathetic refurbishment earlier this year. You’re made to feel at home as soon as you step through the door of this family-friendly hostelry. Stand with the traditional inglenook fireplace on your right and choose from the bar, on your left, or a cosy dining room on your right (reached across a flagstone floor). The pub’s owner and head chef, Nick Deverell-Smith, is a local boy and grew up eating here with his family. But while he is clearly passionate about this pub, Deverell-Smith also brings the kind of depth to his cooking that can only be won through stints in Michelin-starred kitchens. Book into one of the pubs two, simply furnished, bedrooms and you’ll find walls painted in muted, chalky colours, original beams, hardwood floors and soft, white cotton sheets. Sit and take in the view over rolling fields from the cushioned window seats or relax in the bath after a long walk. Check availability at booking.com Minster Mill, Minster Lovell From £150 per night, check availability at booking.com Set amidst 65 acres of leafy grounds on the banks of the River Windrush (which powers most of the estate via an on-site hydropower turbine), Minster Mill offers a genteel but slick sprawl of honey coloured Cotswold stone buildings to hole up in. Its sister property, the Old Swan country pub with rooms, is just around the corner if you fancy a smidge less formality and a hint more tradition. Light-filled rooms are generously sized and decorated in tasteful neutrals. Scandi-esque touches include pastel-hued wool blankets on the beds and Danish-style loungers. Find L’Occitane toiletries in the plushly modern bathrooms, Cotswolds-made lager, chocolate and crisps in the mini bar, and a room service menu that ranges from Oxford rarebit with brown sauce to rhubarb trifle. MasterChef: The Professionals 2017 semi-finalist Tom Moody is behind the pass at the hotel’s restaurant, which serves polished seasonal plates using produce from the hotel’s vegetable garden. A must-order is the butter-soft veal sweetbreads dressed in beef fat (all the meat and fish is British), with velvety caramelised cauliflower purée and crunchy walnuts. Aged loin of Cotswold lamb, blushing pink, spiked with salty hits of anchovy and feta, is another winner. Pre- and post-dinner tipples, from crisp fino sherry to champagne and classic cocktails, can be found at the hotel’s chic gold-accented Mill Bar. There are also champagne and Cotswold cream teas to try. Check availability at booking.com More hotel guides Best country house hotels in the UK Best health and wellness retreats Best hotels in London Best UK boutique hotels Best hotels in the Cotswolds Best Cornwall hotels Best hotels in the Lake District Best London hotel bars to visit Best romantic hotels in the UK European hidden gems: hotels off the beaten track Best Paris hotels Best Spanish hotels Best Italian hotels Best restaurants with rooms in the UK Best Amsterdam hotels
From a whisky bar with rooms on the banks of the River Spey to beachfront barbecues at an Elie inn, we’ve found the best foodie sleepovers in Scotland
Looking for Scottish holidays? Read about our staycation ideas below for all sorts of Scottish getaways – from staying in the heart of Cairngorms National Park to gin tasting in Edinburgh. For more travel inspiration, check out our picks of the best hotels in Scotland and the best Scottish whisky distilleries to visit. Scottish holidays for foodies Discover local produce on the Isle of Skye Skye, the largest island in the Inner Hebrides, boasts a rich natural larder of ingredients and historic traditions of preservation using local techniques. Chef Calum Montgomery champions these at Edinbane Lodge, a converted 16th-century hunting lodge whose restaurant is dedicated to the island’s crofts, seas and artisan producers. Discover more from Calum about what makes the Isle of Skye cuisine so special. Broadford’s Gasta transforms the island’s ingredients into gourmet pizzas like the Ochd topped with Stornoway black pudding, plum and apple chutney and fresh chillies. And the menu at the secluded Stein Inn, the oldest inn on Skye, focusses on sustainable seafood from the Lochbay shores, with a choice of more than 130 different Scottish whiskies. Go glamping in the Cairngorms Inshriach is a 200-acre mini Highland estate in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. It’s home to a gin distillery where owner Walter Micklethwait concocts small-batch Speyside gins in an award-winning shed. The estate's elegant country house is perfect for a large family gathering (sleeping up to 18, with or without a chef), but for a back-to-nature experience there's a cluster of quirky glamping options peppered throughout the tangled woodland. The four off-grid beds for two include a yurt hunkered into the hillside with views over the River Spey to the mountains beyond. The bonkers Beer Moth is a converted 1950s fire truck, now kitted out with a Victorian double bed and wood burner. The quaint shepherd's hut is old-school romantic and cradled by juniper bushes (the key ingredient in gin – most of the botanicals are foraged from the estate), but for those who want something a little more contemporary, there's the Bothy Project, partly funded by the Royal Scottish Academy, and an artists' residence for half the year with a bare-bones bush shower and compost loo. Check rates and availability at canopyandstars.co.uk Take a cooking class in Perthshire The story began with an escape to the country. Ex-banker-turned-chef Chris Rowley and his wife Rachel dabbled with the supper club concept in Edinburgh before taking the plunge and moving to rural Perthshire. Their first venture, Ballintaggart Farm – a rustic restaurant with rooms and cookery school – was an instant hit. It's no longer a working farm, but much of the produce is grown in the kitchen garden and orchard. Alongside cookery classes, they also run seasonal feast nights that showcase the local larder. Then, in 2018, the duo turned a once-tired Victorian hotel, The Grandtully, into a sleek gourmet getaway. In the restaurant, the daily changing menu features small plates such as Murthly Estate venison carpaccio, fermented salsify and rocket, while more filling dishes include Loch Etive sea trout, sea kale and lemon aioli. ballintaggart.com Have a beach barbecue in Fife You can flip flop from your room to the sand in seconds at The Ship Inn in the seaside village of Elie. The wee Kingdom of Fife, just a pebble's throw from Edinburgh, is famously foodie. Curving around the coast there's legendary fish and chips in Anstruther; the poshest farm shop in Scotland in St Andrews, complete with café, steak barn and butchery classes; and just inland, Fife's gourmet hotspot, Kinneuchar Inn. The Ship, meanwhile, is well-known for its beach cricket during the summer season and barbecues in the beachfront beer garden. As well as its signature burgers in a brioche bun and Belhaven Best battered haddock and chunky chips, the seasonal menu champions local shellfish and seafood. Take a gastronomic pitstop on the shores of Loch Fyne Inver, an award-winning outpost on the shores of Loch Fyne, is the ultimate west coast pilgrimage for foodies. After stints at Noma and Fäviken, chef Pam Brunton and partner Rob Latimer took a punt on this lochside spot in 2015. Inver is a visionary restaurant in an old whitewashed croft house, where traditional Caledonian dishes are reimagined and elevated not just to another level, but a whole new stratosphere. Using local wild and farmed ingredients, a la carte dishes include langoustines and crab from the Loch, whilst the innovative tasting menu invites you to slow down for an exploration of Scottish produce. If you’re staying over, splash out on one of the luxury bothies. Breakfast delivered to your door in a wicker basket is a gourmet treat, with homemade bircher muesli or granola, fruit compote and yogurt, freshly baked pastries and bread, eggs and freshly squeezed orange juice. Go foraging in Galloway Galloway Wild Food's mycophile and wild food guru Mark Williams offers a range of foraging experiences and tours. Sign up for a three-hour tramp through the woods in search of ceps and chanterelles, as well as edible roots and shoots from the forest floor. He also offers coastal and hedgerow foraging, and three-day sea kayaking wild food adventures off the west coast. Based in Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, the natural larder here is overflowing with the likes of reedmace and wild radish, samphire and sweet cicely. Accommodation tips on the website include nearby glamping spots, local inns and guesthouses such as the renovated Woodlyn B&B in the village. ; Take a road trip along the Malt Whisky Trail Take a stunning road trip along Speyside's Malt Whisky Trail, which winds its way from Morayshire's coast through undulating hills peppered with more than 50 distilleries. The trail links nine of the distilleries, including Glenfiddich and The Glenlivet (stop off for tours and tastings) and the Speyside Cooperage, which makes whisky barrels. A perfect pitstop along the way is the village of Aberlour on the banks of the River Spey, home to the Aberlour distillery, Walkers Shortbread and the Mash Tun – a whisky bar with rooms. Expect more than 100 single malts and blends, including the exclusive Glenfarclas Family Casks, a collection of 52 single cask whiskies, one for each consecutive year from 1952 to 2003. The price of a dram? From £3.50 to a wallet-busting £1,500. After a nightcap, stumble up to bed in one of the distillery-themed rooms (the Glenlivet Room has sweeping views over the River Spey and a romantic roll-top tub). For more like this, check out our full guide to all the best Scottish whisky distilleries to visit. ; Stay on a farm in Perthshire Guardswell Farm's 150 acres of grassland cradles a rural getaway where you can switch off, soak up the silence and learn about the land. The family-run enterprise offers an eclectic range of courses and foodie events throughout the year, from spoon carving to no-dig organic vegetable growing with pioneering horticulturalist Charles Dowding. Sleep in the Pinterest-pretty clutch of cabins, cottages or farmhouse (sleeps 10) scattered across the farm, including The Pendicle – a larch-clad bolthole with a wildflower-sown roof, wood-burning stove, fire pit and jaw-dropping views from the decking over a field of Hebridean sheep. Or opt for The Infield, an off-grid hilltop hideaway with a stargazing window above the bed. Check rates and availability at guardswell.co.uk Discover a farmhouse for foodies in the Cairngorms At the end of a private road through the forest on the Rothiemurchus Estate, Achnahatnich House is an off-the-beaten-track hideaway in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. Built in 1900 and once home to tenant farmers, this tastefully renovated three-bedroom house now has a Scandi-chic vibe, its white wood-panelling and soft dove grey palette offset by the odd splash of mustard and Delftware blue. The large open-plan kitchen is the perfect place to whip up a feast, but if you don't fancy cooking you can pre-order a range of freshly cooked meals to be stocked in the fridge (a whole week's worth if you like) from the Rothiemurchus farm shop, made with produce from the estate – think hearty beef stroganoff and venison casserole. You'll also find a complimentary welcome hamper stocked with food from the farm shop and, if you're feeling adventurous, you can book a range of focused activities, from pony-trekking to foraging and whisky experiences. Book a gin-tasting experience in Edinburgh Edinburgh has a long history of distilling, dating back to the first gin craze in the 1700s. Dutch ‘genever’ was imported through the port of Leith and the city soon had a taste for the juniper-based spirit. Today, the revamped Edinburgh Gin distillery, built around four historic East Market Street arches, is a must-visit for gin lovers. You can take tours and tasting here, learning about the history, production and different botanicals. Cocktail-making classes, gin and chocolate pairings, or gin and cheese experiences are also available. Stop at the in-house gin distillery bar for signature cocktails showcasing, naturally, plenty of Edinburgh Gin. Enjoy a luxury staycation in Sutherland Sumptuous seclusion on a wilderness reserve in the Scottish Highlands is the ultimate staycation. And it comes with a chef. Visit Alladale in Sutherland and never leave the pewter-tinged lochs, brooding glens and heather-sprung moorland of the 23,000-acre estate. There are three lodges sleeping between four and 14. Two cottages – Ghillie's Rest (sleeps four) and Eagle's Crag (sleeps 4-8) – are kitted out with well-stocked kitchens and freshly prepared meals ready to cook, while the lodge itself sleeps up to 14, complete with gym and sauna. A fully catered experience, Alladale Lodge's 'Conscious Cuisine' approach focuses on local, seasonal and organic ingredients from the state-of-the-art aquaponics garden (the three large greenhouses powered by the estate's hydro-generator ensure zero-waste and zero emissions), along with ethically culled wild venison, local game and trout. Find family fun at Gleneagles in Perthshire No longer aimed so squarely at the huntin’, fishin’, golfin’ brigade, five-star Gleneagles still offers a luxury experience but also fun for the whole family. De-tartaned bedrooms are softer and prettier (not least the Royal Lochnagar suite, pictured). There are a range of restaurants and bars to discover throughout your stay, from the two Michelin-starred Andrew Fairlie to more casual brunch and burger options, and a traditional afternoon tea in Glendevon. With 850 acres to explore – and a vast programme of supervised activities – Gleneagles has always been popular with families. There is Little Glen, a supervised play space for kids up to nine, and The Den, whose video games, air hockey and cinema room should keep older children and teens happy. Doubles from £495 per night, check availability at booking.com More hotel guides Best country house hotels in the UK Best health and wellness retreats Best hotels in London Best UK boutique hotels Best hotels in the Cotswolds Best Cornwall hotels Best hotels in the Lake District Best London hotel bars to visit Best romantic hotels in the UK European hidden gems: hotels off the beaten track Best Paris hotels Best Spanish hotels Best Italian hotels Best restaurants with rooms in the UK Best Amsterdam hotels
Best unique UK holiday cottages for foodies
Stock up on local produce from farm shops, food boxes and artisan delis and make the most of fully equipped country kitchens. Cuddle up by the fire in Pembrokeshire, go foraging in Monmouthshire or hide out in a fishing village in Cornwall
Looking for holiday cottages by the sea in Cornwall? Want to hide away in a farm cottage in Wales? Check out our pick of self-catering accommodation for a UK staycation, complete with local recommendations for artisan food hampers, farm produce delivery boxes and nearby takeaways and delis. Pretend that one of these beautiful cottages are your own for the weekend. Cook a feast in the self-catered kitchens, go for long walks to get to know the local countryside and neighbours, or cuddle up by the fire and hide out in your very own foodie holiday cottage. Next discover the best walks in the UK, best romantic hotels for food lovers, the best UK spa hotels for food lovers and the best honeymoons for foodies. Best foodie holiday cottages in the UK Lavender Cottage, Norfolk – coastal cottage for six people Set just outside Burnham Market within sleepy rolling parkland, this flint-walled cottage is ideal for a weekend near the sea. It’s located down quiet and increasingly winding country lanes in a secluded corner of Norfolk where wildlife is abundant and the stars shine brightly at night. Inside Lavender Cottage you’ll find rustic farmhouse features like stone floors and a woodburning stove. But there’s also an abundance of modern comforts like the Everhot range which keeps the kitchen cosy, while also having an induction hob element – perfect for cooking pancakes on a Sunday morning. From your spot at the stove you can look out of the charming porthole window at the well-established garden, where there’s a great outdoor dining area, plus a pizza oven for the summer months. Sandy beaches are just a 15-minute drive away and, on your return, you can warm up from a dip in the sea in the cottage’s huge rolltop bath. There are plenty of local food highlights nearby including The White Horse in Brancaster Staithe where the focus is on local seafood. Or venture down the road to the coast for the best Sunday lunch around at The Hero in Burnham Overy Staithe. Sleeps six adults and one child, from £756 for a three-night short break or £930 per week. Check rates and availability at norfolkhideaways.co.uk Durslade Farmhouse, Somerset – house for 12 people Set among 1,000 acres of boundless Somerset countryside, this 18th-century farmhouse is the perfect place to squirrel away for the weekend, with everything you need directly on your doorstep. Located on the grounds of the Hauser & Wirth estate there’s no surprise that the farmhouse is peppered with exclusive artworks. No two rooms are the same – with each of the six bedrooms curated with unique charm and enchanting vintage pieces. Enjoy a welcome hamper overflowing with Somerset’s bounty –from farm-made jams to chocolate-dipped honeycomb from the beehives and pickles made by in-house forager Kenny Jelfs. Milk-washed margaritas and stiff martinis are within walking distance of the farmhouse with the conveniently placed Roth Bar found only across the courtyard. In the private dining room enjoy an intimate experience from Roth Bar's executive chef James Jesty. Using ingredients hand-picked from the walled garden or meat reared on the farm, James’s cooking boasts big flavours with unique twists on seasonality. If you’re after something more laid-back and alfresco, then you only have to throw open the back doors to the sprawling hills and light up the Big Green Egg on your patio – the on-site farm shop can furnish you with all the trimmings for a perfect BBQ. It has everything you need, from succulent meat cuts from the farm to foraged pickles to pimp your burger. The farmhouse can be your cosy retreat or your bouji party house for the weekend but, whatever the occasion, you needn’t walk further than 100 metres to satisfy your appetite. Sleeps 12, from £850 a night to hire the entire farmhouse. dursladefarmhouse.co.uk/the-farmhouse/ The Artisan Bakehouse, Ashurst, West Sussex – woodland cottages for two to four people This rural retreat in the Sussex countryside has revamped its two cottages – The Brewhouse and The Milkhouse – which form part of the rustic 16th-century farmhouse. Complete with outdoor swimming pool, the cottages are enveloped in five acres of woodland and gardens, home to all kinds of wildlife from woodpeckers to rabbits and wild deer, making them ideal for peaceful, relaxing escapes. When it comes to mealtimes, guests can make use of the bounties from the herb and vegetable patch and fruit trees, and are welcome to collect eggs from the chickens. If you fancy cooking alfresco, there is a barbecue in each of the cottages’ gardens, too. All sorts of lovely homemade bakes will be waiting for you here in a generous welcome hamper, and there are discounts for guests on the baking courses that are held on-site. Learn how to bake bread, make pastries and master sourdough or, if you have a sweeter tooth, check out the chocolate workshops. If your idea of a holiday is more about kicking back while someone else rustles up your meal, head to the fully licensed Bakehouse (open seasonally) and tuck into homemade lunches and afternoon teas featuring locally grown ingredients Each cottage sleeps up to four, circa £325 for two nights, £875 for a week; theartisanbakehouse.com The Fish Store, Mousehole, Cornwall – coastal cottage for ten people The Fish Store, by the harbour at the tiny Cornish fishing village of Mousehole, was once a pilchard-packing factory. These days – in fact for the last century – it has been the characterful holiday home of the same family – one of whom is food writer Lindsey Bareham. For the ultimate holiday cottage cookbook, turn to Bareham’s book, also called The Fish Store, which features recipes relating to the house and harbour. Unsurprisingly, this coastal retreat, with its seaside-chic vibe, has shelves crammed with cookery books, a sprawling open-plan kitchen and a barbecue outside perfect for a seafood grill. The house is a short stroll down to the harbour where you can pick up crab fresh off the boats. Guests also receive a gourmet welcome hamper on arrival and there’s no shortage of places to eat out in this foodie corner of west Cornwall. One of the owners' tips in the village is The Ship Inn – which has a simplified menu at the moment but you can still tuck into Tribute Ale battered cod and chunky chips. In Mousehole there’s also The Old Coastguard Hotel, while in Newlyn, just round the coast, you’ve got Ben Tunnicliffe’s gastropub, the Tolcarne Inn. Sleeps 10, from £1,995 for a three-night short break or from £2,595 per week; thefishstore.uniquehomestays.com Pineapple Spa, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cotswolds – holiday cottage for four people Pineapple Spa in Lower Swell just outside Stow-on-the-Wold is a Grade II-listed, 200-year-old Cotswolds spa. Indian carvings mark its buttery stone exterior, and a pineapple motif sits above its arched doorway; there’s also a golden fir-cone on top of each upstairs window. Inside the interiors are just as quirky. There's a trap door in the living room (covered by a glass partition) which leads to a stone cellar and the spring that makes this the smallest spa in England. There’s also a pineapple-shaped stone font by the stairs (to which the water is pumped) and, continuing the fruity theme, pineapple tea cups, candle holders, key rings and cushions throughout. The kitchen is hand-crafted and sleek and owner, Rachel, leaves a pampering array of treats (croissants, cookies, coffee and red wine among them) to tempt you. If you don't want to venture out Daylesford Farm Shop is close by and offers free delivery within a 10-mile radius of their Kingham location, so you can stock up on organic cheeses, fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, artisan breads and pastries along with their award-winning 'real meals', freshly made soups and hearty stews. If you do want to explore, there are plenty of local food highlights nearby. In Bourton-on-the-Water don't miss the syrupy ‘petal’ cake from the Bakery on the Water (open for takeaways) while in Stow-on-the-Wold you can try 10 different flavours of still-warm fudge from Roly’s Fudge Pantry. Pubs serving good food include The Porch House (read our review of it here and visit their website for updates on reopening) Another little gem is Locojo’s pizzeria in Moreton, which offers takeaway and delivery and a veggie feast pizza topped with fresh figs and goats cheese. Sleeps four, from £284 per night, booking.com West Cawthorne, Yorkshire – barns and cabins from four people As you drive into the farm to be greeted personally by owners Rich and Sophie, the place has a French feel, with its bleached stone buildings and shaded pétanque area. The barns, which sleep four or six, are interior magazine worthy, decorated in neutral colours with exposed beams, poured concrete details and photogenic décor, while still feeling warm and cosy. We headed straight into the wood-fired hot tub. Accomodation is self-catered and the kitchen in our barn was stocked to a fine detail. Guests get a welcome pack, including macarons from Florian Poirot and Bluebird Bakery sourdough – both at Talbot Yard in nearby foodie Malton – plus Yorkshire crisps, apple juice, butter and eggs. Guests can order a Made in Oldstead recipe box by local food hero Tommy Banks. Our kit was simply named ‘duck, lamb, raspberry’ and was three vibrant, elegant courses that were deceptively intuitive to cook. Whether you want to lounge at your cabin or barn, taking in deep lungfuls of crisp Yorkshire air from your deck, or use it as a base to explore places like Malton, Pickering, Helmsley, York and Sandsend, this tranquil haven is a perfect spot to go off grid (while also enjoying excellent wifi coverage). Barns start at £800 for a 4-night stay and cabins at £360 for a 2-night stay. northyorkshirehideaways.com Brownber Hall, Yorkshire Dales – guesthouses for eight or fifteen people The sourdough pizza nights had quite a following at award-winning, eclectic-chic Grade II-listed guesthouse Brownber Hall in the Yorkshire Dales. Following the pandemic, the Hall was relaunched as a self-catering let. A second property on the estate, Brownber House, a four-bedroom Victorian farmhouse, is also available to rent. Amanda's sister, Georgina Rose, (the designer for Soho House), has curated the interiors. Think Vanessa Arbuthnot fabrics, vintage furniture finds, a reconstituted stone bath in the master bedroom and sweeping views over the Howgill fells. Enjoy a virtual concierge service and welcome hampers packed with homemade treats such as freshly baked sourdough bread, marmalade, cakes and cookies. They can also arrange for the fridge to be stocked with local supplies from companies such as the Appleby Creamery and Eden River Brew Co and they'll prepare a picnic for you for a hike up onto the fells. What's more, if you don't feel like cooking you can still tuck into their sourdough pizzas – delivered to the door or left chilled to be cooked later along with home-cooked meals such as local longhorn beef bourguignon with dauphinoise potatoes, seasonal greens and a bottle of burgundy. Brownber Hall sleeps 15, from £1,600 for a three-night short break and from £2,800 per week. Brownber House sleeps eight, from £,1000 for a three-night short break and from £1,800 per week; brownberhall.co.uk, mrandmrssmith.com Yew Tree Farm, Coniston, Cumbria – farmhouse for six people In the craggy Lakeland fells above Coniston you can bed down in Beatrix Potter’s old home, Yew Tree Farm, and eat at her original dining table. The cosy 17th-century, Grade II listed farmhouse has bags of character and is still decked out with some of her furniture – think dark oak panelling, roaring fires and a traditional kitchen – as well as more contemporary additions, including a barbecue and hot tub. You might recognise the farmhouse from Miss Potter, the 2006 film adaptation of the author’s life, starring Rene Zellweger and Ewan McGregor (Yew Tree Farm was used as one of the set locations). Today it is still a working farm and Herdwick sheep and Belted Galloway cattle graze the meadows and fells outside its door. Stay over and you can collect eggs for breakfast from the farm’s hens – and put in your order for dinner from Heritage Meats, which is based on the farm and specialises in Herdwick hogget and mutton and Belted Galloway beef. Or head into Coniston to the family's café Herdwicks where you can sample dishes created from the farm's beef and Herdwick lamb – now open again with social distancing measures in place. Sleeps six, from £683 per week, booking.com Merlin Farm Cottages, Cornwall - private cottages for two and four people Tucked away amid the rolling hills and hedge-lined lanes of beautiful Cornwall, Merlin Farm Cottages offers a quietly luxurious rural escape with all the amenities and comfort of home whilst being completely surrounded by nature, you can expect scenic countryside views as far as the eye can see and nothing but the sound of bird song. The cottage has the advantage of being within walking distance of the sandy shores of Mawgan Porth beach, which is a bit of a hidden gem, less-known than it’s nearby neighbours Fistral and Watergate Bay, it’s the perfect spot to hire surfboards or bodyboards (or enrol in a lesson) from the surf shop and hit the waves under the watchful eye of the lifeguard team. Each self-catering cottage is thoughtfully restored – slate roofs, exposed beams and thick stone walls nod to their agricultural past, while interiors balance rustic charm with modern comfort: think wood-burning stoves and huge glass windows to make the most of the stunning views. Big, comfortable beds, deep baths, and a variety of options to suit couples and families are available. Farm shops, artisan bakeries and vineyards dot the area: and of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to Cornwall without fish and chips on the beach. Stein’s in Watergate Bay is worth the short drive for good value lobster rolls or comforting Nasi Goreng, sit outside and you can enjoy it whilst watching some accomplished surf skills. Weekend rate starts at £495 for 2 people/£595 for 4 people for 3 nights. All cottages include logs, linen, and complete kitchen facilities. Some cottages are dog-friendly: merlinfarmcottagescornwall.co.uk ___________________________________________________ The Piggery, Monmouthshire, Wales – farmyard cottage for four people A cosy, two-bedroom traditional farmyard cottage with its own hens (that’s breakfast sorted), welcome hamper (with local cider), a wood-burning stove, barbecue and an orchard outside the door, The Piggery is one of three self-catering options on TV presenter Kate Humble’s farm in rural Monmouthshire – other choices are the converted Hayloft and the Humble Hideaway, an off-grid shepherd’s hut; both sleep two. Sleeps four, from £393 for a three-night short break or from £558 per week; humblebynature.com Garden Cottage, Peak District, Derbyshire – cottage for six people There are roses around the doorway of this bucolic, three-bedroom stone cottage in the grounds of the Wootton Hall Estate on the edge of the Peak District National Park. Garden Cottage was originally the estate's old pump house but now boasts contemporary country chic interiors with a large farmhouse kitchen, roaring log fire and board games in the sitting room, a barbecue in the garden and far-reaching views of the rolling countryside. It also has stellar food credentials: it's the sister property of the nearby Duncombe Arms, a stylishly rustic 19th-century inn which was awarded a Bib Gourmand at the end of 2019. Sleeps six, from £525 for a three-night short break and from £1,000 per week, duncombearms.co.uk/garden-cottage Loch an Eilein Cottage, The Cairngorms, Scotland – cottage for two people A Pinterest-pretty, one-bedroom architect conversion in the Cairngorms National Park, Loch an Eilein Cottage was built in 1813. Today this old stone cottage is light and contemporary inside, with a double-fronted wood-burning stove (that’s back-to-back fires in the bedroom and living room), a quirky pencil point bed, white tongue-and-groove walls and a charming window seat looking out onto the neighbouring loch. The open-plan kitchen is well kitted-out for cooks and stocked with a welcome hamper from the nearby farm shop, but if you want to eat out, the cottage’s website has a whole section for foodies, listing the local culinary hotspots. The Old Bridge Inn down by the river is a local favourite. Hunker around an open fire with a plate of beetroot and dill-cured salmon or a steak. Right on your doorstep The Druie in Rothiemurchus is a rustic café (decorated by the same designer as the cottage). The deli counter is perfect for picnics brimming with homemade quiches, salads and mezze (created by chef Ghillie Basan, who also runs cookery workshops). The Hidden Highland Retreats team can organise champagne picnics by the river along with foraging and cooking experiences. Sleeps two, from £850 for a three-night short break or £1,600 per week; hiddenhighlandretreats.com Lodge Farm, Freston, Suffolk – farm cottages for two, four and six people You won’t need to swing by a supermarket on your way to the handful of farm cottages at Lodge Farm. They’re set on the same estate as the award-winning Suffolk Food Hall. The “Champion of Champions” in what have been dubbed the Countryside Alliance’s Rural Oscars, this cattle barn turned farm shop is within walking distance of all three cottages here – The Dairy (sleeps 6), the Parlour (sleeps 4) and the Buttery (sleeps 2). The shop stocks everything a hungry holidaymaker could want, with an on-site butcher (selling pork from the farm’s pigs and beef from the farm’s Red Poll cattle), baker, deli, fishmonger and chocolatier to choose from. No fewer than 222 local suppliers sell their goods there, among them an old dairy farm down the road that produces Mature Shipcord, a traditionally produced cheese. From £418 per week for The Buttery, £889 per week for The Parlour, and £1,044 per week for The Dairy; lodgefarmsuffolk.co.uk Nantwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales – eco-cottage for two people If the idea of an eco-cottage conjures images of composting toilets and windows slung with dreamcatchers Nantwen will challenge your preconceptions. This one-bedroom converted cowshed, surrounding by wildflower meadows outside the seaside village of Newport, may have solar panels and a biomass boiler but it’s also smart and stylish, with a slate-tiled wet room, restful white walls, goose-down duvets and heated wooden floors. Owned by a jeweller and a cellist, there’s a creativity about Nantwen that extends to the food. The couple have won awards for their handmade chocolate (their raw cacao-based bars come in five different flavours, including peanut butter, fig and raspberry) and, while a carefully hand-picked welcome pack is still provided (local jam or honey, tea, coffee and fresh bread), guests also now have the chance to pre-order homemade cakes, artisan hot chocolate, local apple juice, granola, eggs, bacon, cheese, milk and more. A sumptuous 'Afternoon tea' can also be requested so that it's waiting for you on arrival (cheese and chutney, ham and mustard and egg and cress sandwiches, chocolate brownies, lemon polenta cake and scones with jam and cream.) The owners also recommend a local chef who can deliver meals to your door. Sleeps two, from £285 for a three-night short break or from £545 per week; nantwen.co.uk Highbrook Cottage, Powys, Wales – cottage for four people This charmingly decorated cottage was surrounded by fields of Welsh lambs when we visited in March. But the food connection is actually more of a drink link: owners James and Susan are gradually planting the fields with vines, so far producing 800 bottles of four different natural wines each year. You can choose between two reds, and either a rich pétillant or a champagne-style white (£25-£35 a bottle). Order in advance then enjoy your bottle either outside next to the babbling brook that runs through the front of the property (sometimes visited by a group of ducks), or under Welsh blankets in front of the lounge log-burner – depending on the weather. Work up an appetite by walking the surrounding hills – the countryside is beautiful and criss-crossed with footpaths – or you’re not far from the beautiful Brecon Beacons. Either cook up a storm in the small but fully equipped kitchen, or visit one of the many traditional old pubs nearby. Foodie mecca Ludlow is a short drive away, or consider booking Michelin-starred Pensons restaurant an hour away. Sleeps four; from £110 per night (three-night minimum stay) or £700 per week, whinyardrocks.com Glen Dye Cabins and Cottages Glen Dye Cabins and Cottages sits within a 30,000-acre estate in Kincardineshire. Choose from Steading Cottage, with its own woodland hot tub, North Lodge, with a romantic riverside summerhouse, or The Sawmill, with its converted Airstream trailer and private outdoor shower. With interiors designed by the estate’s owners, Pedlars founders Charlie and Caroline Gladstone, and Big Green Eggs to cook on, this is seriously decadent glamping. For eating out there’s Spider on a Bicycle café in Aboyne or Buchanan Bistro in Banchory. Check rates and availability at glendyecabinsandcottages.com More UK travel guides Best country house hotels in the UK Best health and wellness retreats Best hotels in London Best UK boutique hotels Best hotels in the Cotswolds Best Cornwall hotels Best hotels in the Lake District Best London hotel bars to visit Best romantic hotels in the UK European hidden gems: hotels off the beaten track Best Paris hotels Best Spanish hotels Best Italian hotels Best restaurants with rooms in the UK Best Amsterdam hotels
Best restaurants in San Sebastián: where locals eat and drink
Sparkling white wine poured from a height, mounds of gooseneck barnacles and melt-in-the-mouth suckling pig with quince sauce – Spain’s coastal corner surely wins the prize for the world’s best bar crawl
Looking for the best restaurants in San Sebastian? Read our guide to the best places to eat and drink in Donostia San Sebastian. Including local favourites and must-visit haunts of Jose Pizarro (London's favourite Basque chef). From Michelin-starred restaurants to San Sebastian's best casual pintxo bars and bars to drink Basque txakoli wines. For more travel inspiration, check out our guide to the best Spanish food trips or travel across the border with our best French food trips. Jump to: Best restaurants in San Sebastián Best pintxo bars in San Sebastián Best bars in San Sebastián Best food shops in San Sebastián Where to stay in San Sebastián Best places to eat and drink in San Sebastián Michelin-starred restaurants in San Sebastián A picturesque port and resort on the Bay of Biscay, San Sebastián has notched up 16 Michelin stars. There are seven three-star restaurants across Spain and three of them are here: Akelarre, Martin Berasategui and Arzak, the bastion of chef Juan Mari Arzak. It has the second highest number of Michelin stars per square metre after Kyoto in Japan, and more than Paris. Jose Pizarro, London's favourite Basque restaurateur, loves Arzak. This three Michelin-starred restaurant continues to push the boundaries of Spanish food, turning it into art. It’s no wonder Arzak is included in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. A visit here will be one of the best food experiences you will ever have. The brightest in the constellation is Mugaritz. Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz’s insatiable appetite for pushing limits and unwavering loyalty to local ingredients and traditions results in a show-stopping tasting menu, with dishes like trompe l’oeil olives and beer, or perfect pork under autumn ‘leaves’. Read our extensive interview with Jessica Lorigo, head chef at Mugaritz. Topa Rowdy and colourful, all graffiti-covered walls, loud music and raw, recycled materials, the Basque-Latin American mash up tells the story of Basque immigration to Latin America. Try the iconic tacotalos al pastor vasco, marinated in Basque pepper and cider vinegar instead of citrus, and topped with roasted apple in place of pineapple. The corn tacos (‘talos’ in Basque) are blended with millet – its usage locally predates corn – to enhance the flavour. Meanwhile, kalimotxo, that love-it-or-hate-it local tipple of red wine and cola, enriches braised veal empanadas. Another borrowing comes from Mexican chef Enrique Olvera’s kitchen: a 1,100-day-old mole that is ‘fed’ daily with Basque spices for an infusion of subtle local flavour. And to drink?Pisco cocktails and micheladas come up against euskojitos (Basque mojitos) and the local txakoli wine. The idea of authenticity is thrown wide open. topasukalderia.com Casa Urola Anchovies, goose barnacles, baby peas, white asparagus; the menu at Casa Urola reads like a greatest hits of seasonal local produce. Under the deft control of chef Pablo Loureiro, and making the most its charcoal grill, the restaurant focuses on updating traditional Basque dishes. Tuck into an Instagram-perfect plate of alcachofa con praliné (artichoke with cardoon, mojo sauce and almonds) and txipirón, a mound of squid with creamy white bean sauce and the original pintxo, the Gilda; think a cocktail stick crammed with salty anchovies, fat juicy olives and local guindilla pickled peppers. There's a restaurant upstairs where chef Pablo Rodil serves a contemporary take on rustic Basque cuisine. A starter of charcoal-grilled artichoke hearts and cardoons with almond cream, salty praline and crisp Iberian ham is delicious, as are the sautéed baby broad beans with borage, artichoke and egg on potato cream. Another Basque delicacy: charcoal-grilled hake cheeks are soft, salty and delicate. casaurolajatetxea.es/en/ Zelai Txiki Call Zelai Txiki the day before to reserve the suckling pig and suckling lamb, served straight from the wood-burning oven and carved tableside. Or, if you prefer something less flamboyant, try the homemade charcuterie, then hake with clams, and finish with melon soup and coconut ice cream. restaurantezelaitxiki.com/es/ Casa Julian, Tolosa It’s worth the 20-minute drive (or bus ride) from San Sebastián to the colourful riverside town of Tolosa to try the sensational steak at Casa Julian. Head past bottles and boxes into a warren of vaulted rooms lined with dust-speckled vintage wine bottles. Bag a spot in the back to watch 1kg salt-crusted Basque chuletón (bone-in rib steak) steaks being tossed onto open flames. Steak is served rare here (its intense fat crisp and glistening), and brought to the table chopped into large pieces for diners to fight over. Kick off with crusty bread and oil, and a sweet Navarra white asparagus spear. Order a side of caramelised piquillo peppers, served in the dish straight from the oven with sticky blackened edges. casajulianmg.com Gandarias This lively pintxo bar and restaurant is larger than others of its kind. Fight your way to the front of the queue to order Coravin wines by the glass along with skewers of plump prawns covered in garlicky salsa and bitesize pieces of charred solomillo steak pinched into a slice of bread with a green chilli pepper. restaurantgandarias.com Best pintxo bars in San Sebastian Mimo San Sebastián pintxos crawl Embark on a pintxos – also called txikiteo in the Basque country – crawl with Mimo San Sebastián. Weave through the crowded warren of alleyways in the Parte Vieja or Old Town. There’s no delicate way to eat pintxos, traditionally a slice of baguette teetering with food and speared with a wooden toothpick or pintxo – hence the name. The juices soak into the bread, run down your chin, coat your fingers and are smeared onto paper napkins, which are tossed on the floor. Pintxos were born because “it’s not our custom to entertain at home. We meet friends for a drink and snack before dinner”. It’s one of the reasons that, originally, there were no sweet pintxos – these were pre-dinner snacks, not the main meal. You also went to one or two places not the string of bars you working your way through on this tour. There are over 100 pintxos bars to choose from, mainly in the Old Town, and so a tailored tour is a good way to narrow it down. The guide's top tip: ignore the piles of pretty pintxos on each bar’s counter and order dishes chalked on the blackboard. These are cooked fresh to order and each bar has its own specialities. mimo.eus/food-tours/pintxo-san-sebastian/lunch Goiz Argi – for prawn skewers At Goiz Argi the speciality is the brocheta de gambas, a juicy prawn served on a skewer, soaked in a sweet and sour garlic, pepper and onion marinade. The mari Juli baguette with salty slivers of smoked salmon, sardine and oily green pepper is equally moreish, with a glass of txakoli, the local sparkling white wine. Poured from great height to aerate it, the feisty, fruity white splashes into a tall tumbler. It conjures up vibrant green apples and has a slightly salty aftertaste. The grapes are grown on the coast near the towns of Getaria and it has denomination of origin status – as has the local idiazabal sheep’s milk cheese. The smoked version is more traditional as it was originally made in windowless shepherds’ huts and smoked naturally rather than by design. Borda Berri – for grilled octopus Borda Berri in the Old Town makes all its pintxos to order. The menu’s perfectly executed takes on traditional dishes change regularly, but piquillo peppers stuffed with beef cheek and the grilled octopus are perennial favourites, along with legendary risotto pintxos made with idiazabal. Fermin Calbeton Kalea, 12; 00 34 943 43 03 42 Restaurante Ganbara José Ignacio and Amaia have run this Basque-style bar in San Sebastián’s old town for over 25 years, and it serves some of the best pintxos you’ll find. Try the crab and prawns with a glass of txakoli. ganbarajatetxea.com Atari Gastroteka – for dessert This bar by the overblown baroque basilica of Santa Maria is a great place for dessert. The torrija is a cross between bread and butter pudding and French toast, made with brioche soaked in custard and then caramelised. atarigastroleku.com Best bars in San Sebastián Bodega Donostiarra This is Jose Pizarro’s favourite place to enjoy the Basque sunshine out on its terrace with a cold beer. He always orders the chicken wings, but the tomato salad is amazing too. bodegadonostiarra.com Bar Txurrut A midday vermouth is a Spanish weekend ritual, and Bar Txurrut’s picturesque terrace is the best spot for enjoying one. Try artisan vermouth, doctored with a touch of bitters and a dash of Amaro, shaken and strained into a chilled glass. Plaza De La Constitución, 9; 00 34 943 42 91 81 Sakona – for coffee This hip coffee shop is said (by in-the-know locals) to serve the best coffee in town. Owner Javier Garcia focuses on seasonal coffee beans, shipped from Ethiopia, Kenya, El Salvador and beyond, which he roasts in his home town, Irún. Sleek scandi wooden interiors are brightened up with pops of teal and you can order simple but filling plates of food to go with your brew. Traditional Spanish pan con tomate (puréed tomatoes and smashed garlic on toast) is modernised with chives, a runny egg sits atop zesty avocado, and eggs benedict provides hearty sustenance for walks along the beach. sakonacoffee.com Gu A stylish addition to the San Sebastián night scene, Gu is a restaurant and nightclub set in a striking building designed as the city’s yacht club in 1929. Go for sundowners and enjoy cocktails with a view – try the Gu Mule (vodka, ginger beer, green tea, and lime). gusansebastian.com Best food shops in San Sebastián Oiartzun – for ice cream, pastries an coffee Taking a stroll along the Boulevard while eating an ice cream is an obligatory summer evening tradition in San Sebastián. Various ice cream shops line the shaded avenue, but Oiartzun stands out for its artisanal, made-from-scratch flavours like torrija and New York cheesecake. Sit at the counter at the back of the shop and order like the locals – a "cafe con espuma" (coffee with foam) and a little palmita heart-shaped pastry. pasteleriaoiartzun.com Aitor Lasa – for Spanish produce Artisan deli Aitor Lasa is rammed with oils and preserves, local charcuterie and cheeses and baskets brimming with mushrooms to create the ultimate Spanish picnic to take to La Concha beach. aitorlasa.com La Bretxa market – best food market Buy ingredients from 19th-century La Bretxa market. San Sebastián is bordered by the sea, mountains and fertile Ebro valley and Basque cuisine reflects this bountiful natural larder. Local farmers sell their produce outside every day except Sundays, the stalls are piled high with the area’s famous artichokes and asparagus, beans in every hue (red, white, green, and black beans from Tolosa), petit pois so sweet they’re known as green caviar, and guindilla peppers. The fish and meat markets are inside, underground. Here you can find local specialities such as chistorra, a cross between chorizo and sausage, and salt cod (bacalao). At the fish counters there are mounds of percebes (gooseneck barnacles), a typical delicacy. Hake is popular as is turbot cooked over a grill with olive oil and garlic. On the stalls the gills are exposed, a vivid red to show that the fish is fresh. bretxa.eus/es/ Where to stay in San Sebastián Hotel Maria Cristina Doubles from £472, check availability at booking.com, expedia.co.uk or marriott.com The glamorous belle époque Hotel Maria Cristina is a fitting base for the gourmet capital of Spain. The hotel, which nudges up to the Parte Vieja and overlooks the River Urumea, was exquisitely revamped in 2012, the year that marked its centenary. Renowned filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has stayed here, along with a string of Hollywood luminaries from Bette Davis to Woody Allen. Its food credentials include its own concierge-designed DIY pintxos trail, a gourmet shop where you can stock up on gastronomic souvenirs from local wines to smoked olive oil and Basque cookbooks, while in the basement there’s the sleek, state-of-the-art cookery school. The cookery school is run by Mimo San Sebastián, set up in 2009 by British expat Jon Warren, whose passion for the region’s gastronomy led him to leave his lucrative job in the city in London. They offer pintxos tours, cookery classes, wine and sherry tastings, vineyard tours and trips to sagardotegiak (aka cider houses). These pepper the surrounding region especially near the town of Astigarraga. The houses dish up set menus featuring salt cod omelette, chorizo cooked in cider, and idiazabal with quince and walnuts along with as much cider – lightly sparkling, cloudy and refreshingly sour – as you can drink from the huge barrels. The chef, Mateus Mendes, begins by teaching how to clean squid and carefully remove the ink sac. During the morning, soak and sear, beat, blend and blanch, and get to handle a blowtorch. Then sit down to eat the lunch you've cooked: a delicate dish of squid with sweetcorn and tart green apple and, for dessert, creamy sweet torrijas, for example. Doubles from £472, check availability at booking.com, expedia.co.uk or marriott.com More travel guides Best Morocco food trips Best French food trips Best Spanish food trips Best Portuguese food trips Best European vineyards to visit and stay Best foodie city breaks by train Best Spanish hotels Best Italian hotels Best country house hotels in the UK Best Scottish hotels Words by Lucy Gillmore,Marti Buckley Kilpatrick, Jose Pizarro and Hilary Armstrong Photographs by Alamy, Getty, JM Bielsa, San Sebastian Food and Markel Redondo
Foodie road trip in Ribble Valley, Lancashire
This bosky corner of Lancashire should be rammed but, for now, you can enjoy its posh hotpots, artisan cheeses and venison cobblers in peace
Looking for restaurants in Ribble Valley? Want to know where to eat in Clitheroe? Head on a foodie road trip through Ribble Valley and the Forest of Bowland, stopping off at country pubs, hotel estates and cream tea cafés. Many tourists still bypass Lancashire for the more obvious charms of the Lakes and its traditional rival, Yorkshire. They’re missing a trick. The Ribble Valley, most of which is in the Forest of Bowland (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), is where you’ll find charming market town Clitheroe, with its tiny castle, a clutch of picture-perfect villages and a cast of inspirational chefs and food producers linked by a food trail. Read on for our picks of where to go in the Ribble Valley. Best restaurants in the Ribble Valley The Inn at Whitewell When Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon careered north on their gourmet road trip for BBC2’s The Trip, their first stop was the The Inn at Whitewell in Lancashire’s unspoilt Forest of Bowland. This rambling inn, its old stonework a tangle of creepers, is cradled by rolling sheep-speckled hills above the River Hodder. Inside, fires blaze and crackle in open grates, walls are crammed with hunting prints and men in tweed prop up the bar. You’re not going to stumble on it by accident, but the effort it takes to get here is worth it, as its many punters appreciate. Don't miss the classic Lancashire hotpot with pickled red cabbage and crusty bread. Beneath a wafer-thin lid of crispy potato the lamb is soft and doused in a buttery gravy, the shredded cabbage adds a sweet acidity that cuts through the richness. innatwhitewell.com Best food shops in the Ribble Valley Mrs Kirkham's farm shop Cheese is one of Lancashire’s oldest specialities. As far back as 1199 King John granted Preston a Royal Charter to hold an annual cheese fair. The rich grasslands on the edge of the Forest of Bowland (the name comes from the Norse Bu-land, meaning cattle land) are well-suited to dairy farming and have been dubbed Lancashire’s milk fields. I’m heading there the next day to award-winning Mrs Kirkham’s Cheese in Goosenargh. They still make cheese the traditional way, blending the curd and covering it with salted butter – rather than wax – to protect it. The Kirkhams have been making raw cow’s milk cheese from their herd of Holstein Friesians for 35 years. Head to the farm shop to take your pick from the heaving cheese counter, as well as produce from local artisans. mrskirkhamscheese.co.uk At Mrs Kirkham's Cheese they still make cheese the traditional way, blending the curd and covering it with salted butter Cowman’s Famous Sausage Shop A Clitheroe High Street stalwart. The shop’s 70-strong sausage recipes range from pork and plum with mulled wine and spices to lamb, mint and rosemary and a beef and beer version made with local stout. cowmans.co.uk There’s more beer on the edge of Clitheroe. The Bowland Brewery is an exciting new development in a 19th-century cotton mill. The sprawling buildings now house a café, artisan bakery, beer hall and ice-cream parlour, with a boutique hotel on the cards. The beer hall lays claim to the longest continuous bar in the UK (made from old mahogany floorboards). And the beer? Try the Pheasant Plucker, a copper-coloured bitter with bright berry flavours. For lunch, I visit an award-winning gastropub. They’re two-a-penny around here. The Assheton Arms, in the picturesque conservation village of Downham, is now part of the Seafood Pub Company, a group of Lancashire pubs run by fishmonger’s daughter Joycelyn Neve. It has smart bedrooms and a menu featuring cockles with spiced vinegar and clotted cream mashed potato with homemade fish fingers. The Freemasons, meanwhile, in Wiswell is a fine-dining pub complete with tasting menus; chef-proprietor Steven Smith’s hot dog of proctors’ kick ass cheddar with Wiltshire truffles is a breadcrumbed cheese ‘sausage’ topped with pungent truffle shavings in a crisp roll. In the tiny hamlet of Mitton, The Three Fishes’ claim to fame is its chef patron, Nigel Haworth, arguably Lancashire’s most lauded chef. I grab a table beside the open fire (think stone-flagged floors and tweed curtains) and order Morecambe Bay shrimps swimming in hot butter with a sweet toasted muffin. Heaven. The Three Fishes Classics includes Haworth’s Lancashire hotpot, of course, the winning dish on the Great British Menu back in 2009. But the venison cobbler in Lancashire ale stew with root vegetables, smoked bacon bits and crispy suet dumplings is too tempting. It’s pungent, rich and gamey, and perfect for a cold winter’s day. I’m staying at Northcote, the hotel that’s home to his Michelin-starred restaurant, so get a double helping of Haworth’s expertise courtesy of his five-course dinner menu. The Orkney scallop tartare, organic leeks, fresh wasabi and caviar is fresh, fragrant and feisty, while the caramelised celeriac and chestnut ravioli with celeriac tea is perfectly paired with a sake. Dessert is Brockhall Orchard apple cheesecake, in the shape of an apple with salted caramel, cider sorbet, herbs and flowers; the sharp sorbet at its heart is a tongue-tingling surprise after the salty sweetness of the caramel. The next morning Haworth is teaching a game larder masterclass in the hotel’s new cookery school. The first recipe is game terrine with fig chutney. “Terrines are coming back into fashion,” he says. “This is my favourite winter snack, with watercress soup.” He demonstrates the dish before letting the group loose on duck, rabbit and pheasant. Haworth is a strong supporter of Lancashire’s artisan producers, among them Gazegill Organics. Threading my way through narrow, hedgerow-trimmed lanes I pull up in a muddy farmyard to meet Emma Robinson and Ian O’Reilly. The 250-acre farm has been in Emma’s family for 500 years, but they now have 120 Hampshire Downs sheep, Oxford Sandy and Black pigs, polytunnels of vegetables, and plans for a zero-food-miles, off-grid café to run alongside their farm shop. They also have 140 Old English Shorthorns; a heritage cattle breed rather than high-yielding Holstein Friesians. They’re out to grass as long as possible and are smaller so have less impact on the environment. Robinson and O’Reilly walk me into their barn to see the latest calves – and DC (Dad’s Cow) who is 20 years old. In cow terms that’s ancient. Most dairy cows, Ian tells me, have a lifespan of around six years because of the intensive dairy farming’s methods. At Gazegill Organics they do things differently. “This is where dairy needs to be going,” he says. “It should be compassionate.” At Gazegill all the heifers go into the herd and bull calves go for veal. Iain is an advocate of Slow Food and they farm organically. Cows fed on corn and a cocktail of drugs is the antithesis of Gazegill’s ethos. “They need to eat grass full of flowers and herbs. Meadowsweet is nature’s aspirin, fennel protects against mastitis, valerian is a natural sedative.” The milk they sell is raw and organic. And delicious, I think, as I drink a chilled glass. Other fans of Gazegill Organics are Maurizio Bocchi and his wife, Cinzia, whose restaurant La Locanda has won a Taste Lancashire Award for two years running. This little restaurant could be a neighbourhood trattoria in Italy. Instead it’s in the village of Gisburn. Their menu combines regional Italian cuisine and seasonal Lancashire produce. A blackboard is scrawled with the season’s bounty: in winter artichokes, garlic, hake, broccoli, mushroom, butternut squash, pheasant, leeks, apples, pears, pumpkin, truffles… I try pear wrapped in bresaola with a gorgonzola and walnut sauce; the soft sweetness of the fruit is the perfect foil for the dark, pungent sauce and salty meat. The star of a moreish charcuterie board of truffle mortadella, Goosenargh-cured duck and figs, meanwhile, is a bergamot marmalade, a Calabrian speciality that’s a fabulously citrussy palate-cleanser. Maurizio is famous for his homemade pasta and the ravioli with goat’s cheese from nearby Longridge – plus honey, butter and mint – is plate-scrapingly good. I tear myself away reluctantly. “Come back and stay longer. There’s a good b&b in the village,” Cinzia coaxes. I’m sure I will, as I’m now more than a little in love with this rural corner of Lancashire – still, surprisingly, one of the country’s best kept secrets. Ribble Valley hotels Double rooms at The Inn at Whitewell cost from £132, b&b, at the Assheton Arms from £120 b&b, and at Northcote from £230 b&b. More info: visitlancashire.com. Words by Lucy Gillmore Image credits: Getty, Alamy, Adam Riley, Rachel Warne, Lucy Gillmore
You don't have to leave the UK for a skiing holiday – head to Scotland instead and tuck into venison stew, hot chocolate and steaming bowls of cullen skink after a day on the mountain slopes, then curl up in a cosy chalet, gastro pub or family-friendly cottage
Looking for the best Scotland ski resorts? The Scottish mountains are beckoning. For more ski inspiration, check out our picks of the best ski destinations in Europe. True, the snow in Scotland hasn't always been as reliable as the Alps, but Scotland's ski resorts have been ploughing money into state-of-the-art snow-making technology in recent years. There are five main Scottish ski areas to choose from, two in the west (Glencoe and the Nevis Range) and three in the east in the Cairngorms National Park (Cairngorm Mountain, Glenshee and The Lecht). There are a few advantages to strapping on your skis in Scotland. Flexibility is one. If weather reports forecast a big dump of snow, you can hop on the sleeper and arrive at the slopes the next morning or pile into the car with your gear and drive north. Another is the range of outdoor activities on offer from winter (wonderland) walking to ice-climbing and sledging. And in terms of après-ski, fondue and tartiflette might not be on the menu but there are plenty of foodie highlights around: from cosy cafés dishing up bowls of steaming cullen skink to gastropubs serving hearty venison stews in front of an open fire and holiday cottages offering hampers stocked with local smoked salmon, homemade oatcakes and shortbread. This year might well be the time to swap the glühwein for a warming dram… The Scottish ski season, snow conditions allowing, stretches from December through to Easter (some ski areas open officially 19 December). Best of Scotland's ski resorts Glenshee Ski Centre – Scotland's largest ski resort Glenshee is the largest ski area in Scotland with 40km of pisted runs (a good mix of green, blue, red and black) spread over 2,000 acres, the most comprehensive network of lifts in the country (22 including three chairlifts), a ski and board school, and three cafés. The season kicks off on 19 December – guaranteed thanks to Snow Factory snowmaking machines. You can even stay in a chocolate box chalet nearby. Glenbeag Chalets is a cluster of five traditional log cabins straight out of a skiing brochure. At an altitude of 1,100ft above sea level and surrounded by spectacular scenery, each has a natural turf roof, interiors of exposed wood, a traditional sauna and hot tub for a long steamy soak to ease aching muscles after a day on the slopes. The chalets are just six miles from Glenshee ski centre and a 20-minute drive from Braemar, where you'll find one of the most luxurious gourmet hotels in the Highlands, The Fife Arms. In the hotel's Flying Stag bar tuck into a Highland beef and bone marrow burger, with Tain Fat Cow cheese and hand cut chips, Scottish fish and chips, or haggis, neeps and tatties with Royal Lochnagar whisky sauce and skirlie. Chalets sleep from two to five, from £327 for a two-night shortbreak, glenbeag.co.uk, check availability at booking.com. The Lecht – family skiing in Scotland The Lecht is the smallest of Scotland's ski centres, on the eastern edge of the Cairngorms National Park, and it's one of the best for beginners (Magic carpet moving walkways rather than lifts for the nursery slopes) and a good family-friendly option. It has 20km of pistes, a day lodge and café for a warming hot chocolate and an on-site snowsports school. A good base for your stay is the Dell of Abernethy (BBC Springwatch and Autumnwatch set up camp here for three seasons), just a half-hour drive away. This lodge and cluster of cottages is family-friendly and food-focussed. You can book a range of 'Grocer' options from a welcome hamper stocked with hand-picked local produce to oven-ready dishes (think homemade venison, juniper and gremolata pie followed by homey blackcurrant and apple crumble) and DIY meal kits with fool-proof instructions. Try the hot smoked salmon and leek risotto or shakshouka. They also have a carefully curated cellar list showcasing local Inshriach gin alongside the wines and organic beers from the Highlands' Black Isle Brewery. Cottages sleep from two to nine: Little Dell sleeps two from £500 for a four-night short break, East Dell sleeps five from £130 per night, thedellofabernethy.co.uk, check availability at booking.com. Nevis Range Mountain Experience – off-piste Scottish skiing The new kid on the block (it opened in 1989), Nevis Range is seven miles from Fort William on the west coast – and on the bucket list of many off-piste and back-country skiers. It's also home to the UK's only gondola, which swings up the north face of Aonach Mor with breathtaking views over the Great Glen's snow-capped peaks and Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain. Just a few minutes' drive from the slopes, the Inverlochy Castle Hotel is a grand baronial pad with an Albert and Michel Roux Jr restaurant. Rooms might blow the budget, but look out for special offers (such as a winter two nights for the price of one: £375 for two nights b&b) or swing by for dinner. Think wild Scottish rabbit cannelloni, cured loin, girolles and lardo or west coast langoustine with pickled mussels, sea herbs, verjus pearls and seaweed dashi. Another good place to stay is the Lime Tree on the waterfront in Fort William (art gallery, boutique hotel and restaurant in one) which dishes up gin-cured smoked salmon with cheese and chive mousse, beetroot ketchup and pickled vegetables alongside vegetarian haggis, neeps and tatties. Doubles at Lime Tree from £85 b&b, limetreefortwilliam.co.uk, check availability at booking.com. Doubles at Inverlochy Castle Hotel from £375 for two nights b&b, inverlochycastlehotel.com, check availability at booking.com. Aviemore – Alpine skiing vibes in the Scottish mountains Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park is as close as Scotland gets to an Alpine ski resort with its smattering of outdoors shops, cosy cafés and hotel resorts. It also has a bus to the slopes. You can't ski from your door, but Cairngorm Mountain is just 20 minutes' drive away through fairy tale forests of towering pines. The ski area has 30km of slopes and the UK's highest funicular up to a panoramic restaurant and ski station. There are also 11 lifts and tows to take skiers to the slopes, mountain cafés, back country touring and ski and snowboard lessons on site. After a day on the slopes, bed down in the latest addition to Hidden Highland Retreats' portfolio of chic cottages, The Garden Flat in 18th-century Inverdruie House. It's a 10-minute walk from Aviemore, (the Caledonian Sleeper pulls into the train station at 7.30am) and the Old Bridge Inn for gastropub fare and a roaring fire. This cute botanical-themed bolthole comes with a gourmet welcome hamper stocked with produce from the Rothiemurchus estate farm shop nearby and secure storage for your skis. Cottages sleep four from £750 per week, £500 for a three-night short break, check availability at hiddenhighlandretreats.com. Glencoe Mountain Resort – Scottish skiing with on-site pods Scotland's first ski area, Glencoe, opened in 1956 and is the only one with accommodation on site (a handful of cosy wooden pods), so you can ski straight from your door. Hunkered into the wild, windswept grandeur of Rannoch Moor, the mountain resort dishes up dramatic Highland scenery at every turn. It brags the longest and steepest ski run in Scotland and as well as skiing and snowboarding, offers avalanche training and (free) sledging. If you're not bunking down in a pod, nip over the road to the recently revamped Kingshouse Hotel. A pitstop for weary travellers since the 1750s, the historic hotel relaunched with a striking wood and stone extension in 2019. There's a restaurant with panoramic views, the menu featuring light bites such as local Loch Leven oysters with shallot vinegar and smoked haddock rarebit with toasted sourdough and rocket salad, or belt-busting mains such as the Scottie Dog haggis hot dog with Isle of Mull cheddar sauce, Arran mustard and crisp onions in a brioche bun. Then sit back and relax in front of a roaring fire in the bar with a local malt whisky. Doubles from £120 b&b, check availability at kingshousehotel.co.uk. Photograph credits VisitScotland More travel guides Best country house hotels in the UK Best health and wellness retreats Best hotels in London Best UK boutique hotels Best hotels in the Cotswolds Best Cornwall hotels Best hotels in the Lake District Best London hotel bars to visit Best romantic hotels in the UK European hidden gems: hotels off the beaten track Best Paris hotels Best Spanish hotels Best Italian hotels Best restaurants with rooms in the UK Best Amsterdam hotels
Take part in an online Japanese tea ceremony, rustle up fresh pasta using a YouTube video or enjoy a Swedish woodland feast from your armchair with these virtual travel experiences for foodies
Sweden – for a virtual wild food adventure Wander through woodlands with Michelin-starred chef Jacob Holmström, crouching down in the undergrowth as he prepares a forest broth with poached perch and broiled herb butter. Holmström is one of four chefs who have created a series of menus for Swedien's Edible Country project, highlighting the abundance of foraged food in the country's backyard – all 100 million acres of it. A DIY gourmet dining initiative, the original concept was that travellers could book a seat at a rustic outdoor table in one of 23 remote locations then cook dishes with ingredients they’ve sourced themselves from the surroundings (think smoked char, chanterelles, juniper berries and wood sorrel followed by acorn and hazelnut crumbs, with fruit and berry compote); a foraging guide and chef were optional extras. Until travel restrictions are lifted, however, you can go for a virtual woodland feast instead by watching the project’s films online – or, if you substitute some of the more local ingredients for those found in your own backyard, you can cook up a foraged Swedish feast at home using the recipes on the website. ediblecountry.visitsweden.com Champagne – for a virtual wine tour Soar over bucolic vineyards, watch grape-pickers at work, journey into the chalk-carved cellars where millions of bottles are aged then sweep down the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay where you'll find the headquarters of prestigious champagne houses such as Mercier and Moet et Chandon. All from the comfort of home, since this virtual tour of the Champagne region and its wineries is available online; if you have a pair of Google Cardboard goggles or virtual reality headset you can experience it in 3D. If it leaves you wanting to expand your knowledge, the Comité Champagne, which represents 16,000 growers and 340 champagne houses, also offers a free online course, the MOOC, for budding wine enthusiasts. This outlines the champagne making process, the terroir, history and economy of the region and runs through tasting notes. 360.champagne.fr Italy – for a home-style cooking experience Catapult yourself into the rustic kitchens of Italy's Pasta Grannies and celebrate the legacy of the country’s wonderful home cooks by subscribing to author and filmmaker Vicky Bennison's YouTube channel (follow the link from the Pasta Grannies website). Cook along with Paula Volgger in the South Tyrol, for instance, as she makes traditional canederli, or bread dumplings, on a wood-fired stove in her 400 year-old farmhouse or 'maso' in the mountains (the recipe is included in the text below the video). Or immerse yourself in Rina's Piemonte as she shows you how to make tajarin or tagliolini with porcini, a classic dish from the Asti region where her family have milled organic stone-ground flour for more than 50 years. For other ideas on recreating an Italian culinary experience at home check out our guide to Italian cookbooks. pastagrannies.com Oregon – for a virtual food trail It might not be quite the same as hitting the rural roads of this fertile corner of north-west America in real life but taking a virtual roadtrip along one of Oregon's self-guided Food Trails via Travel Oregon's YouTube channel is the next best thing. The Great Umpqua Food Trail, for instance, introduces you to the producers who farm on the banks of the Umpqua river in southern Oregon. Along the way you’ll meet winemakers such as Stephen Reustle of Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyards, delve into the world of olive oil producer Elaine Smith and stroll through the orchards of fourth-generation fruit farmer, Mark Brosi. There are 70 stops along the trail; if the video leaves you wanting to explore the region’s food producers in more depth you’ll also find an interactive map and more information here. We also recommend checking out Oregon’s North Coast Food Trail. This leads viewers through 60 foodie pitstops along an 85-mile stretch of coast from Cannon Beach to Lincoln City with chef Bob Neroni as your guide; highlights along the way include bakeries, distilleries and a crab cook-up on the beach. northcoastfoodtrail.com Mauritius – for tropical flavours If it’s a taste of the tropics you’re after, sit back and enjoy a virtual escape to the community-focused, Slow Food-inspired resort SALT in Mauritius. A series of videos on the resort’s website introduces you to the inspiring people – the “SALT Shakers” – behind the concept and takes you to some of their favourite foodie experiences around the Indian Ocean island. Executive Chef, Dave Minten, for example, takes viewers to the local market to shop for mango and tamarind, shares his favourite street food eats – rotis – and explains how local fishermen free-dive for sea urchins in the sea. If this leaves you hungry to find out more you can extend your virtual travel experience by reading our feature about the resort, and the island, here. saltresorts.com Savoie – for cheese lovers We said at the beginning of the year that cheese tourism was going to be big this year but until travel restrictions are lifted you’ll have to get your hit online instead. Start by watching the clutch of short films about artisan cheese-makers in France and Switzerland that have been created by raw milk cheese specialists Mons Cheesemonger. The films take you through the process, from cow to curd to ageing cave but if that sounds a little technical the films are anything but. Escape to the wild Alpine scenery as Jean-Jaques cuts summer grass laced with wild chives, white clover and daisies to make hay for the cows. Or sit back and let jangling cowbells transport you to the upper valleys of the Vanoise National Park, in the Savoie region of France, where Catherine Richard produces Bleu de Termignon cheese by hand after milking her cows in a 400 year-old parlour. For the full 360 experience why not order some delicious cheeses from Mons’ online shop and taste while you watch? Just bear in mind that many of these cheeses are produced in very small quantities so not all of them will be in stock. mons-cheese.co.uk East & South Africa – for conservation-minded foodies Safari is the Swahili word for journey – something we're not able to embark on at the moment. However ecotourism and conservation operator Singita, which has 15 lodges and camps across Africa, has just launched its first cookery book Singita: Our Food Journey. Showcasing traditional and contemporary African dishes, the book offers a flavour of the safari experience at home. Pour yourself a sundowner as you whip up Tanzanian futari, a sweet potato, butternut and coconut stew, or South African classics such as malva pudding or Zambezi beer-battered bream, inspired by the catch of the day from Lake Malilangwe. It’s an investment (the book costs £65) but proceeds go towards supporting the Singita Community Culinary School in South Africa and Tanzania and the coffee table-style tome is full of stories of the people behind the recipes such as poacher turned pastry chef Peter Andrew. To get yourself in the mood before you start cooking, go on a virtual game drive or take a behind-the-scenes tour of the culinary school and some of the talented young chefs who have been supported by it. singita.com Greece – for virtual holiday food vibes We challenge anyone who read our recent feature on Pelion not to want to start immediately planning a trip to this foodie corner of Greece. While that’s impossible in person at the moment, you can wallow in a whistlestop tour of the Pelion Peninsula with Greentraveller's immersive film of the region. Fly over rocky coastline tumbling into turquoise sea, watch a circle of women in traditional dress dance in a village square to celebrate the annual chestnut harvest and see fishermen hauling in their nets in the drowsy sunshine. You can almost smell the aroma of sizzling meatballs and taste pastries being drizzled with honey. Wander past a family eating under the trees, toast the day with a shot of ouzo and virtually browse tubs of shiny olives glinting on market stalls. youtube.com Melbourne – for a virtual market tour In our foodie guide to Melbourne we raved about the city’s Queen Victoria market, a landmark spot that opened in 1878 and, sprawling over seven acres, is the largest open-air market in the southern hemisphere. At the moment the market is still open and traders are following social distancing measures but, unless you’re a local buying essential food supplies, the recommended way to get your fix of all its lovely produce for now is by taking a virtual visit via the market’s YouTube channel. Sit back and enjoy a guided tour with the help of one of the market’s own guides, Sarah Cornish, and local chef, Daniel Wilson. You'll meet Lucas, who can schuck up to a dozen oysters in a minute, watch fishmongers expertly filleting fish, discover how butcher Max has made enough sausages to string them around the world seven times and drool over various street food stalls (not least the steaming hot, jam-oozing doughnuts). Other films on the channel focus on sustainability (think refillable wine bottles and compostable coffee cups) and diversity (the market is home to everything from multi-cultural streetfood stalls to grocers selling the culturally-specific fruit and veg their cooking calls for). youtube.com Japan – for a virtual slice of culinary culture Kneel on the floor and imagine yourself in Japan with the help of Live Japan’s virtual tea ceremony. A 360-degree real-time experience, the film will give you ten minutes of Zen-like relaxation while also introducing you to the intricacies of the traditional tea ceremony. Stay in Japan (albeit remotely) by watching Ikigai, one of a series of short films created by the Japanese National Tourism Organisation for its #FallingInLoveWithJapan campaign. The dream-like montage takes you free-diving with the Ama, women who fish for abalone and sea urchins; others cover a modern-day fishmarket and restaurant kitchens where chefs prepare sushi and sashimi. Weaving in geisha, temple trails and modern cityscapes the films beautifully convey the many faces of modern-day Japan. Words by Lucy Gillmore Photographs by Tina Stafrén, Comité Champagne, Getty, Visit Tillamook Coast, Singita and Clare Hargreaves
Dodge donkeys in the souks, and piles of spices and vegetables in mountain markets, to track down slow-roasted lamb, coriander-spiked kebabs and sardines served with wedges of lemon
Looking for restaurants in Marrakech? Want to know where to eat in Fez? Travel writer Lucy Gillmore takes us on a foodie road trip through Morocco, stopping off at riad hotels, souks and street-food stalls. Marrakech Follow your nose from the Djemaa el-Fna, the mesmerising main square in Marrakech’s medina – its chaos and cacophony fed by a frenzy of hawkers, hustlers, henna tattoo artists and snake charmers – to Mechoui Alley. On the edge of a spider’s web of claustrophobic passageways and dark dead ends in the old quarter, the smoky aroma of slow-roasted lamb seeps out, drawing you in. It’s the lunchtime rush and vendors at the street-food stalls dish up tender strips of lamb, roasted in deep clay pits in the ground and devoured with bread, a sprinkling of cumin and salt, and sweet mint tea. Alongside this mechoui, another local speciality is tangia – urn-like clay pots stuffed with lamb, vegetables and olive oil, and slow-cooked over coals until the meat is falling off the bone – and a more niche delicacy: roast sheep’s head. It might be just a date stone’s throw from the stalls piled high with gaudily painted tagines and tourist trinkets but these are the authentic flavours of Marrakech. Flavours which, in this North African country, have their roots in French, Arabic and indigenous Berber culture. I’m hungry but I drag myself away, snaking through the medina to Le Trou au Mur, sleek sister restaurant of luxury riad hotel Le Farnatchi, where mechoui is also on the menu. I find the door and climb the stairs, emerging into a vibrant room ringed with lime-green banquettes, a vivid black-and-white-tiled floor and a roaring fire. Another set of stairs leads up to a roof terrace and tables with views over the magical muddle of the medina. The restaurant’s design might be starkly contemporary but its ethos is bedded in ancient traditions, the menu showcasing old family recipes passed down from generation to generation. It’s an eyeopener for diners who imagine Moroccan cuisine starts and ends with tagine (the slow-cooked classics of chicken with olives and lemon, or lamb with prunes and almonds). Cherchma is a mix of beans and lentils in a spicy sauce, served with couscous and fed to young children while they’re teething; tride are shredded pancakes with lentils, chicken and a saffron sauce that’s traditionally eaten by women after giving birth. I tuck into chermoula sardines, marinated in a pungent paste of coriander, cumin and lemon, and stuffed with spicy ratatouille-style vegetables. And then, the mechoui, cooked in the restaurant’s traditional clay oven – the shoulder cut is a mound of melt-in-the-mouth meat. For dessert, I can only manage a few spoonfuls of the sweet and creamy berkoukes: imagine a rich rice pudding made from mini Moroccan pasta. Atlas Mountains Marrakech, with its ancient medina and French colonial new town, is now liberally laced with boutique hotels, those in the old quarter converted from riads (traditional houses built around an internal courtyard or garden) but I’m staying half an hour outside the city in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Kasbah Angour is a tranquil hilltop retreat built in Moroccan style by English expat Paul Foulsham and run by a team of local Berbers. The property is surrounded by 10 acres of meticulously manicured grounds with a backdrop of snow-covered peaks. There are just 25 rooms, stone floors scattered with brightly coloured rugs, a dreamy pool and a generous peppering of cushion-strewn sun traps and shaded seating areas. It’s a world away from the mayhem of Marrakech. The restaurant focusses on local recipes and a home-cooking style, with much of the fruit and vegetables, from aubergines to artichokes, grown in the kitchen garden, the freshly squeezed orange juice from citrus trees in the courtyard. Breakfast is a spread of cheeses, freshly baked breads, sweet Berber msemen (pancakes) and Berber eggs cooked on a bed of fried tomatoes. In winter you can tuck into a hearty bowl of bean-based harira soup with lamb, tomatoes and chickpeas in front of a fire, in summer relax on the terrace with chilled baked aubergine stuffed with tomatoes and thyme, and kefta (meatball) tagine with tomatoes. The hotel offers a range of excursions, from half-day hikes to more strenuous whole-day treks with a local guide and the opportunity to visit the weekly souk at Tahnaout. On scrubland surrounding the market, Berbers from the mountains haggle over straggly sheep and goats, while tethered donkeys wait patiently. We wander through the maze of makeshift stalls, past piles of vegetables on mats on the ground, mounds of salt and sacks of spices, crates of apples from the Atlas Mountains and lentils from the Kik Plateau. There are no women, I notice. The Berber culture is matriarchal, my guide Abdul explains. It’s the men who do the shopping. On one counter, earthenware tagines simmer over smoking charcoal. Locals buy their meat from the butcher stalls, and vegetables, spices and a ladle of olive oil from a seller sitting crosslegged amid bottles of murky golden liquid, and bring the ingredients here to be cooked. At another stall, sardines are deep-fried in a huge vat of oil, then served with wedges of lemon and fresh coriander. On the next, skewers of marinated meat sizzle on a grill. “Moroccan kebabs are different from Turkish,” Abdul says. “We don’t use lemons in the marinade. Our kebabs are simply meat, onions, ground spices and fresh coriander.” Near the fishmongers selling crates of silvery sardines from Essaouira, he points out a smoking conical mud and straw oven. “Mechoui,” he says, “it’s been cooking for five or six hours already.” We are heading back to the hotel on foot along the river valley from Douar Azrou, a Berber village. A jumble of stone houses, bedded into the red rocks, it was once on an important caravan trade route and is now protected by UNESCO. Today, some 25 families live here – one of them, I soon learn, is Abdul’s. Bumping into his cousin we get a taste of Berber hospitality as she invites us in for hot mint tea and homemade barley, honey and olive oil biscuits. Waving goodbye, we weave our way through the terraced landscape. Each family, Abdul explains, has grazing for one or two cows and a vegetable plot. We pass orchards of pomegranate, quince, peach and apricot trees alongside an irrigation canal, rows of silvery olive trees and a local olive press. It’s approaching midday as we wander into the next village to find a group of women chatting around a communal bread oven. They feed the flames with twigs and, smiling, offer us one of the flat round loaves to take with us. Hot from the oven, its crust burns our fingers and lips but we tear it apart, devouring the deliciously soft, doughy centre. Fez The next day I’m leaving the Atlas Mountains behind and travelling north to Fez, once the country’s imperial capital and around six or seven hours by road – or a 45-minute flight on Morocco’s low-cost airline, Air Arabia. Fez remains more off the beaten track than Marrakech, mass tourism yet to make its mark, although with twice weekly Air Arabia flights from Gatwick that might soon change. Here, too, there is a new town built by French colonists but the ancient medina, dating back to the ninth century, and the largest in Africa, is still home to 200,000 inhabitants and a vibrant local community. From the famous tanneries established in the 16th century by Spanish migrants from Córdoba (the stench from the vats and the view of the skins drying on the rooftops is unforgettable) to the hammering of coppersmiths, life goes on much as it has for centuries. My base for the next few days is Palais Amani a 17th-century palace restored and converted into an 18-suite hotel by husband and wife Abdel Ali Baha and Jemima MannBaha. Behind the huge wooden doors they’ve created an oasis of calm around a citrus-shaded, ornately tiled courtyard, a burbling fountain at its heart. They retained many of the original features but added a heavenly candlelit underground hammam. Food is also a highlight, breakfast a feast of fruit from the garden (sliced oranges picked from their trees, with pomegranate and mint), flatbreads with olives, cheeses, honey and homemade jams, and a different Moroccan ‘discovery’ each day. Chorba, for instance, is a traditional vegetable soup served with eggy flatbread; harcha is unleavened bread made with durum wheat, cooked in a cast-iron pan and served with cucumber, tomatoes and olive oil. For dinner you can choose from the local market menu or signature dishes from the à la carte. I can’t resist the pastilla, a flaky filo pastry parcel of chicken and almonds dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. One evening I wind my way to the other side of the medina to the Clock Café, a laid-back labyrinthine restaurant with a programme of cultural events on the rooftop terrace – and camel burgers on the menu; I opt for earthy chicken rfissa with flatbreads, lentils and ras el hanout. On Palais Amani’s roof terrace, meanwhile, there’s a lounge bar, and cookery school. Meeting the chef, Housman, in the courtyard, we go donkey dodging through the souk to buy fresh ingredients – all but the chicken, thankfully already marinating (they kill and clean the birds in front of you in the souk to guarantee freshness). Weaving through the throng, our chef seems to be a local celebrity, chatting to all the stallholders. We buy bunches of fresh mint, aubergines and spices, before stopping for breakfast at a street-food stall. Cramming around a small table, the owner ladles out bowls of bissara soup made from fava beans and garlic with olive oil, chilli, cumin and a squeeze of lemon. Before heading home we stop for another snack, sfenj. These devilishly good deep-fried doughnuts are eaten hot, dipped in butter and honey. Back at the hotel we don aprons to cook lunch. First zaalouk, a smoky aubergine and tomato salad. We char the aubergines on an open flame, grate tomatoes, chop coriander and garlic, and add them all to the frying pan with olive oil, cumin, paprika and salt. Next, the chicken tagine. Later, as we tuck into our culinary creations on the sun-dappled roof terrace as the haunting call to prayer echoes around the medina, I decide that, while there is far more to Moroccan cuisine than the king of one-pot cooking, sometimes the classic is the best way to go. Words by Lucy Gillmore Photographs by Lucy Gillmore and Getty For more info, see visitmorocco.com
A vibrant community of producers is making this corner of the South West a hotbed for wild beer, raw-milk cheese, natural sparkling wine, cider brandy and apple pulp sourdough
Looking for restaurants in Somerset? Want to know where to eat in Bruton? Travel writer Lucy Gillmore takes us on a foodie road trip through Somerset, stopping off at all-natural ice-cream producers, field to fork estates and biodynamic vineyards. Westcombe Dairy Tom Calver flings open the doors of the cellar, a chilly cathedral of cheese, and introduces me, with a grin, to 'Tina the Turner'. Tina is the robotic machine turning the mould-dappled wheels of Westcombe Cheddar as they mature. The cavernous 'cave' was constructed after a trip to France when Calver saw, first-hand, a different approach to affinage, the ageing process. There's been cheesemaking on this family farm, Westcombe Dairy, hidden down a tangle of hedgerow-trimmed lanes in Somerset, for over a century. It all began in the 19th century when Edith Cannon created her legendary unpasteurised cheddar. Fast-forward through two world wars, the introduction of pasteurisation, the rise of the supermarket and demand for bland block cheddar, then press stop. This was when Tom's father, dairy farmer Richard Calver, jumped off the mass-market merry-go-round. Unearthing the old recipes, he steered the farm full circle. His father might have turned back the clock – but it was Tom, a chef in London until his apprenticeship at Neal’s Yard Dairy, who threw them all out. “Cheesemaking shouldn’t be done by the clock, it needs to be intuitive. It’s all about slowing down the process. Over the past 50 years everything has been speeded up and you no longer get the breadth of flavour." Mixing high-tech and old-school (his first cheese-smoker was an old phone booth), it's also a science. The cows bed down on sand topped with a dusting of straw for 'bacterial loading' of the udders - adding good bacteria to the raw milk. "We try to preserve the unique microbial make-up which gives the raw milk cheese its three dimensional character." It all starts with the cows, grass-grazed Holstein Friesians, of course – and the 'cow man,' Nicholas Millard. "Finding a good cow man is hard; finding one who has studied pasture to flavour – well there's only one and we've got him!" When I visit, Nick is away at 'Cow Club' in the Auvergne with a batch of fellow dairy-nerds. As well as cheddar the dairy makes Caerphilly and ricotta. And salami. This is a vibrant community of makers. The farm is also home to an artisan ice cream-maker and microbrewery – and an annual Beer and Cheese festival. In the farm shop Tom hands me a slither of Caerphilly; it has a delicate yoghurty taste, the spoonful of ricotta a subtle sweetness. The cheddar is tangy and complex - you can almost peel back the layers of flavour. In a back room charcutier Paul is making salami, from Tamworth pigs reared, field-to-pork, in woodland around family-run Gothelney Farm near Bridgwater. "We're thinking of experimenting with veal salami," Tom continues slicing meltingly good Saucisson Sec seasoned with garlic, pepper and nutmeg. Wild Beer Co The farm shop is also the Wild Beer company's single-tap taproom – you can fill up a growler to go. Founded by Andrew Cooper and Brett Ellis, the business is known for its sour and barrel-aged beers brewed with wild yeasts. Brett was once a chef in California and uses his culinary expertise to create beers that can be paired with food – and blow your mind: 'Of the Sea' was inspired by lobster bisque - think aromas of shellfish and saffron. It's pure Willy Wonka - bonkers but brilliant. In the farm's old cheese store a ‘beer library’ contains beers aged in old bourbon, whisky, port and cider brandy casks. Jamaican rum barrels add a sweet richness, red wine barrels give a balsamic flavour. This year they've been experimenting with fruit. Other brewers use purée, they use freshly picked. A kombucha-like bright pink sour beer 'Choked Up' is made with chokeberries from Norway and apples and foraged fruit from Somerset. It's barrel-aged, with jammy redcurrants and cranberry aromas, tart to taste - and pairs well with partridge. 'Modus Operandi' was their first wild yeast beer. Aged in bourbon and red wine barrels and then blended, it's blood red, the flavour 'sour cherry dipped in toffee.' Brickell's At the back of the dairy, is sister company, Brickell’s where Rob Gore makes small batch, all-natural ice-cream. The signature flavour? Milk. "Instead of vanilla I wanted to celebrate the quality of the milk,' he explains. It's all about collaboration. "I've just made a ricotta and dark chocolate chip ice cream." His Malted Millionaire, meanwhile, uses pre-fermented beer from the Wild Beer Co. Somerset is where old ways marry new ideas and their love child is a precocious genius. It's a county of passionate producers and fired-up food innovators and draws like-minded individuals to its nurturing folds. People such as trailblazer, Catherine Butler, with her restaurant with rooms, artisan bakery and wine shop, At The Chapel in Bruton and Ben Crofton former director of Soho House who, with his wife, Vanessa and 2018 Great British Menu finalist, Dan Fletcher, is launching a restaurant, bakery and wine shop in Somerton this autumn, 28 Market Place. Roth Bar & Grill And Swiss art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth. Their ground-breaking contemporary art gallery, Hauser & Wirth, sits alongside Durslade, a rock ‘n’ roll farmhouse rental, and a restaurant, the Roth Bar & Grill, on a 1000-acre estate outside Bruton. The estate is a field to fork producer in its own right, rearing Aberdeen Angus, Wagyu and Hereford cattle, Oxford Sandy and Black pigs, Lleyn sheep and even vines for their own wines, but the restaurant at its heart also champions local growers and producers. "We are the shop window for the people we work with, like Tom Calver," explains Operations Manager Jules Horrell. We're chatting at the annual Hauser & Wirth Summer Party. There's porchetta sizzling on the grill, cured with sugar, bay and juniper and wood-roasted vegetables. Cooking with fire is what they do. "Why cook inside when you can do this?" Jules gestures to the flaming grill. Along with Thursday Feasts the restaurant recently launched Roth on the Road. "It's all about sharing the experience with people who want to know where their food comes from." Round the corner Tom is dishing out brick-top Westcombe Cheddar toasties in the sun while people queue for a thirst-quenching Orchard Mist cider cocktail at the Temperley's brightly painted Somerset Cider bus. Burrow Hill Farm At the family's Burrow Hill farm, surrounded by 180 acres of orchards, they have been pressing cider for over 200 years. Julian Temperley, father of fashion designer Alice and photographer Matilda, not only makes cider, perry, Kingston Black aperitif and Pomona but is feted for his Somerset Cider Brandy. Tours, tastings and orchard trails take visitors through trees laden with over 40 heritage cider apples, from Kingston Black to Yarlington Mill, grazed by Lleyn sheep. I jump into a dilapidated farm vehicle and we career up to the top of Burrow Hill for a spectacular 360-degree view of the county. "The art of cider-making is in the blending, its inspiration is the art of winemaking." It's one the Temperleys have mastered, winning the national cider championships in Devon, Somerset and Herefordshire in the same year. Back in the yard, Julian introduces me to to Fifi and Josephine, his old copper stills. "We are hillbilly cider makers - but we're also distillers,' he smiles handing me a glass of 20-year old, treacle-laced fire among the barrels. He jokes, "this is either the crown jewels of the cider industry or what cider makers do when they grow up." Matilda Temperley is now working with her father – and has recently launched her own creation, Somerset Shrubs a sophisticated non-alcoholic drink, made with cider vinegar, honey and fresh-pressed raspberries, that’s delicious with tonic. Limeburn Hill Vineyard There must be something in the water. Or soil. In 2015 in the Chew Valley, landscape architects Robin Snowdon and Georgina Harvey planted a four-acre south-facing slope on Westfield Farm with 1,800 varietals including Orion, Rondo, Regent, Solaris, Seyval Blanc and Pinot noir; biodynamic Limeburn Hill Vineyard was born. Joining Robin for a tour and tasting, we chat about their path. “We don’t come from a farming background, so it's been wonderful connecting with local growers." [Limeburn shares the land with the newly planted orchards of chefs-turned-growers Beccy and Sam Leach of Wilding Cider and there’s a community farm nearby]. Robin and Georgina don't clear the vegetation under the vines. "The more plants, the more biodiversity, the richer the soil,” Robin explains. "It feels like we're creating a place full of life - and the wine is just a bi-product." Their first vintage is now available: Wolf Wine in Bath is a stockist as is local gastropub The Pony & Trap. We sit on straw bales in the sun, the air buzzing with insects, and three bottles (white, rose and red) of Pet Nat, the traditional artisanal method of making sparkling wine, as Robin uncorks the first bottle. The white is lively, bone dry, bursting with apples and pears, while the rosé has a floral bouquet and heavenly strawberry and caramel notes. I eye the red nervously, bad memories of sparkling Shiraz flooding back. The bubbles are candyfloss pink, the wine deep and dark – but the flavour is not overcooked jam. Robin smiles at my confusion. "It's like tasting fruit fresh from the vine." "We wanted to capture the joy of being in the vineyard and I think these do." I agree. It's wild and wonderful – and a world away from the most hyped opening in Somerset this summer, The Newt. The Newt South African billionaire Koos Bekker and his wife Karen, the couple behind the much lauded Cape Dutch farmhouse-turned-boutique hotel Babylonstoren bought 17th-century Hadspen House estate in 2013. Here, at what was once the home of Arthur Hobhouse, founder of the national parks system, and garden designer, Penelope Hobhouse, they have planted orchards, restored the gardens and turned the Palladian mansion into a hotel. There is passion here, too, with a starry team plucked from River Cottage, the Lost Gardens of Heligan and Noma. From the moment you arrive at the visitor reception, a soaring threshing barn, it has undeniable wow factor. Everything is exquisitely conceived from the carefully curated store showcasing local artisans' wares to the farm shop with meat from butcher Lloyd Tucker's parents' farm down the road. The shiny state-of-the-art cider-making facility sits next to an open-air cyder bar with a daily apple-pressing 'show.' The Garden Café is a contemporary vision of glass and wood overlooking the kitchen garden where Charles Dowding's no-dig gardening methods are practised. Its seasonal menu has been designed as a gardeners notebook and head chef Alan Stewart not only makes sure that an element of each dish is from the garden but that its fruit and vegetables are the headline acts: think 'Gooseberry, pickled,' with brown and forest smoked mackerel, salad leaves from Tia's garden and 'Napoli carrots' braised and tossed with carrot top pesto. Even the bread and butter is on-message, the sourdough starter made from apple pulp from the cider press, the buffalo milk butter with preserved orange and thyme from the garden. The Newt is an architectural and horticultural wonder, the gardens' star turn Penelope Hobhouse's famous parabola walled garden, planted with an apple maze of 460 trees. It might be the antithesis to the county's earthy bedrock, but there's no denying it's a glorious homage to Somerset's most famous asset: the apple. HOW TO DO IT Double rooms start from £125, b&b at At the Chapel (atthechapel.co.uk) and £300, b&b, at The Newt (thenewtinsomerset.com). Durslade Farmhouse sleeps 12 and is available to rent from £650 per night (dursladefarmhouse.co.uk). Follow Lucy on Instagram and Twitter @lucygillmore Words by Lucy Gillmore
Graze your way around this chilled-out American West Coast city via salted peanut butter brittle ice cream, rose petal and black pepper kombucha, and daikon, snow pea and radish flower salad
Looking for restaurants in Portland? Want to know where to eat in Central Eastside? Food and travel writer Lucy Gillmore takes us on a foodie road trip though Portland, stopping off at kombucha taprooms, farm-to-fork restaurants and gourmet doughnut stores. Cult comedy sketch show Portlandia shamelessly sends up Portland’s hippy image – it’s the place “where young people go to retire”, grow things, brew beer and join communes. This kooky corner of Oregon can seem almost horizontally laidback but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of creative drive. You don’t become one of the culinary capitals of the USA by sitting around sipping ethically sourced, single-origin coffee. This one-time blue-collar town in the Pacific Northwest has been riding the wave of a foodie revolution for the past two decades. There’s now an artisan roaster on every corner, bean-to-bar chocolate makers and gourmet doughnut stores, grain-to-glass craft distillers, a slew of microbreweries, kombucha taprooms, and acres of farmers’ markets and food cart ‘pods’. It’s also home to more food festivals than you can shake a wooden spoon at, from the annual Cider Summit to the grandaddy of them all, Feast Portland, which takes place in September. Feast isn’t just a festival, it’s a self-proclaimed movement, an incubator of ideas with chefs, farmers, winemakers, brewers, artisan producers and restaurateurs coming together to celebrate and, this being Portland, raise money to help end hunger. Portland is a city with heart-and-soul food in spades. It’s also begun to attract similarly aligned brands from further afield as it veers from hippy to hipster. This autumn, Icelandic boutique hostel KEX will open its second property in Portland, while UK hotel group The Hoxton converted the city’s dilapidated 1906 Grove Hotel into a hip hangout last year. The Hoxton’s interiors are peppered with potted plants, exposed brickwork, low-slung velvet and leather seating, and artworks. Rooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows and eclectically curated, well-thumbed tomes chosen by local artists and bookworms (the world’s largest indie bookstore, Powell’s City of Books, is just a few blocks away). The food has been farmed out to Submarine, the group behind Portland stalwart Ava Gene’s and the hottest brunch spot in town, Tusk, where chef Sam Smith mixes up Middle Eastern cuisine with seasonal produce, his signature hummus, light as gossamer, served beneath a giant artwork of Keith Richards floating in a pool. At the Hoxton, the all-day dining at La Neta is Mexican-themed, while rooftop bar and taqueria, Tope (all verdant greenery, white tiles and panoramic Portland views), is street-food inspired. Later, as the sun sinks behind the hills, I sip a smoky mezcal cocktail, Carrot On My Wayward Son (Banhez mezcal, carrot, sweet potato, lime, mole bitters and egg white). Each morning a “Little Breakfast” (a yogurt and granola pot, orange juice and piece of fruit) is hung on your door in case you wake up peckish. But just across the Burnside Bridge, in the Central Eastside, I’ve heard that Cup & Bar, the city’s first small-batch coffee and chocolate-tasting room and café, does a mean avocado toast. It lives up to the hype: ripe avocado on lemon-drizzled, ricotta-smeared sourdough. Portland is a city of five “quadrants”, divided into northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest and north. The Central Eastside is the city’s industrial heartland, its warehouses now reimagined by entrepreneurial producers. Northwest is home to Nob Hill’s boutiques and clapboard houses, the Dandy Warhols’ wine-bar-cum-recording-studio, The Old Portland and a female-owned gin distillery and cocktail bar, Freeland Spirits. In the southeast, leafy Division Street promises a gastronomic graze-athon. It’s home to Ava Gene’s, legendary Southeast Asian street-food restaurant Pok Pok, ice-cream parlour Salt and Straw, whose spruce tips and huckleberry crisp flavour has been likened to a walk in a forest, and to Blue Star Donuts and its forest-fruit-themed favourite, blueberry, bourbon and basil. Urban winery The Southeast Wine Collective is also here, selling biodynamic, organic wines on tap alongside dishes such as sugar snap peas with garlic breadcrumbs, strawberries, sheep’s cheese and edible flowers. I dig deeper into the Central Eastside on a culinary walking tour with The Big Foody and meet founder Laura Morgan at Steven Smith Teamaker, an industrial building on the side of the rail tracks. From the outside it’s unassuming but inside there’s a sleek store selling dainty teaware plus a tasting counter, teahouse and blending room. Pulling up a stool as a train clatters past, tasting tutor Nicole guides me through a four-tea flight. Portland Breakfast, a rich, black tea, has notes of malt, leather and spice. White Petal is a delicate white tea blended with chamomile petals and osmanthus flowers, with a subtle creaminess and apricot aromas. It also serves teas on tap, a nitro chai with a Guinness-style creamy top, and kombucha. Kombucha is king in Portland, the fermented tea sold on tap in bars and teahouses. The three-hour walking tour also takes in hand-harvested sea salt at Jacobsen Salt Co, blind tasting at Coava Coffee and the New Deal Distillery. After the craft brewing craze exploded across Portland, New Deal founder, Tom Burkleaux, had a light-bulb moment, wondering “why can’t we do that with distilling?”. So, in 2004, he rented a garage and bought a still. New Deal’s signature grain-to-glass vodka is made with soft white winter wheat from Oregon and has a surprisingly smooth, silky sweetness with vanilla notes (whisky-making classes are also offered). Of Portland’s 70 or so microbreweries (it’s not nicknamed Beervana for nothing), one of the most experimental is Gigantic Brewing, known for its Fantastic Voyage, a brett saison with an earthy, kombucha-style flavour profile, or Most Most Premium, a bourbon-barrel-aged Russian imperial stout, with aromas of chocolate, burnt caramel, vanilla and oak. Wandering through the wide, warehouse-lined streets, Laura explains that this area used to be called Produce Row because boats and trains would deliver goods here during the late 19th century. At the time, the port of Portland was bigger than Seattle. Today, the buildings are daubed with street art, littered with vintage home stores and play host to a vibrant night market every three months. More regular farmers’ markets can be found at five locations around the city on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. The Saturday edition is the largest, with 170 stalls scattered around the city’s university campus. Grazing my way around its stalls, I stop at plant-based, dairy-free Kate’s Ice Cream, scooping up salted peanut butter brittle made with coconut and cashew milk, and retro mint chocolate fudge before hunting out more kombucha. At the Soma stall I sample marionberry, its fermented fizz tart and tangy. At Eva’s Herbucha I go further, buying a kombucha starter kit with a scoby. Eva Sippl is a German health practitioner and flavours her kombuchas with medicinal herbs: Rose City’s botanicals are passionflower and oat straw to combat anxiety. The city’s farm-to-fork chefs also shop here, of course, including Aaron Adams, the founder of high-end, plant-based restaurant Farm Spirit. The original dining space, built around a communal table, is now called Fermenter, an area where Aaron and chef Scott Winegard plan to hold classes, ferment and develop recipes. The new restaurant, one street over, is a sleek space decked out with plant installations. I perch at the chef’s counter here for a Cascadian tasting menu showcasing the bounty of Oregon’s forests, farms and fields. Almost everything is sourced within 100 miles. It can be a challenge, Aaron tells me, but it’s one they’ve risen to. The wildly inventive menu displays fantastical culinary acrobatics. The “butter” served with sourdough? “We played around with the water we’d used to cook chickpeas.” A creamy white hazelnut gazpacho created with tomato and cucumber water, dotted with fig leaf oil and shaved hazelnuts, is summer in a bowl. Ceviche of cactus and zucchini plays with compressed courgette, the burnt cucumber skin and chamomile sauce’s sweetness tempered by pickled red onion powder, topped with coriander and marigold flowers. “Peas, radishes, flowers” – purple and white daikon, kohlrabi, snow peas and radish flowers, dressed with flower vinegar – is paired with a Spanish-style cider from Columbia River Gorge. The temperance flight features house-made hopped lemon balm kefir, and rose petal and black pepper kombucha. Kombucha gets the last word. I make a final pilgrimage to Townshend’s Teahouse and order a glass of Brew Dr yuzu and lovage kombucha with clear celery notes. As I grab a seat among the retro green sofas and scuffed wooden tables, Gandalf walks in – all long white hair and floppy cheesecloth cut-offs – and orders a pot of tea. Sinking into an armchair, oblivious, he kicks off his shoes, revealing holey socks, and opens a laptop. It could be a scene straight out of Portlandia. For more information visit travelportland.com Words by Lucy Gillmore, September 2019 Photos by Jamie Francis and Lucy Gillmore
The Indian Ocean island’s newest resort encourages guests to discover local flavours by visiting markets and supper clubs, trying shrimp croquettes, sticky tamarind sweets and homemade passion fruit aperitifs along the way
Looking for restaurants in Mauritius? Want to know where to eat in Port Louis? Food and travel writer Lucy Gillmore takes us on a foodie road trip though Mauritius, stopping off at sustainable hotels, roti stalls and fruit markets. Next find out our best honeymoons for foodies and best romantic getaways for food lovers. Ten minutes from the sleepy village of Clemencia, an organic smallholding is blanketed in thick, rubbery vegetation, a verdant tangle of coconut, banana, lychee, sugarcane and taro. It’s off the beaten track, and a million miles away from the clichéd, honeymoon images of Mauritius. There’s a makeshift shelter and mattress in a clearing, and red flags fluttering to ward off bad spirits and wild boars. “I love being up here on my own,” says young farmer, Denis Aristide. “I’ve just planted some chilli bushes and curry plants,” he says, as he points to some spindly stalks. He is also gradually replacing the sugarcane with taro plants, because he can get a better price for the root vegetable. Crouching down, he shakes a plant free from the soil. The leaves are one of the ingredients in a traditional Mauritian curry, the speckled stalks used to make very snackable taro chips. Denis, who farms without pesticides, supplies Salt, the new community-centred, food-focussed, environmentally savvy resort on the east coast (where I’m staying) with taro leaves. He’s also the head bartender. One of the hotel’s aims is to get guests out meeting Mauritian people, and this window into Denis’s life adds an extra dimension to my stay. I pull up a stool at the rooftop bar and watch as he whips up one of the hotel’s signature cocktails: No Smoke Without Fire. Each drink comes with a background story relating to the island’s heritage. In this case, I learn that sugarcane was once the most important crop on the island. And that, as far back as 1639, Dutch settlers used it to produce an alcoholic drink called arrack. My own, very 21st-century Mauritian tipple is a mix of oak-aged rum, burnt cane, home-smoked cinnamon syrup, savage pepper bitters and sweet orange oil, served over ice with a stick of cinnamon. For the final flourish, Denis sets fire to dehydrated sugarcane in a smoking gun, filling a glass cloche over the cocktail with sweet, swirling smoke. The result is silkily smooth and toffee-tinged, with a citrus twist – pure southern comfort. This rugged volcanic island has had a rollercoaster ride through centuries of slavery, sugarcane production and settlement. Today, it’s a mash-up of cultures and cuisines, from Creole to Chinese, Indian to French. It’s also a tropical idyll, its beaches washed by warm turquoise waters and cradled by coral reefs. The mountainous interior is swathed in luxuriant rainforest threaded with hiking trails that weave past thundering waterfalls. It’s a popular honeymoon destination for obvious reasons. But couples checking into the luxury resorts that garland the coastline often remain cocooned within the confines of manicured grounds. Salt is something different: a forward-thinking hotel brand that aims to provide authentic experiences for “culturally curious” travellers. The idea is to introduce guests not just to places but to people. The design of the 59-room hotel, courtesy of French interiors guru Camille Walala, reflects the island’s vivid colours. Among its library of 300 carefully curated books, three-quarters are Mauritian. Food is at the resort’s heart (the philosophy explained by catchphrases such as “Farming it, not flying it”) and everything from supper with a Mauritian family to fishing trips with a local fisherman are on the menu. With an eye on environmental impact there are no mini-bars in the rooms and no single-use plastics. Each guest is given an aluminium bottle to refill at the water stations, and to take home. The hotel has a Slow Food Travel ethos, supporting small-scale farmers and producers. In each room there’s a guidebook written by locals listing their top restaurant tips around the island, from vegan café Eat with Fingers in Grand Baie to roadside restaurant Chez Tino in the village of Trou d’Eau Douce, which serves a delicious octopus curry with green pawpaw. At the hotel, there’s no breakfast buffet (to limit food waste) and what is on the menu is seasonal and local. There’s an in-house bakery and the hotel smokes its own charcuterie. Then there’s the farm. Some hotels have kitchen gardens but, from this month, Salt will have a whole farm at its disposal, five minutes down the road and founded on permaculture principles. Developed with the help of a local NGO, Island Bio, the farm has a ground-breaking hydroponic system using beach sand for cultivation. As well as growing pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, cultivating mushrooms and establishing its own beehives, the farm will be home to a rustic vegetarian and vegan restaurant. The Salt Raw section on the current hotel menu features wildly creative vegan dishes – tacos made from seeds and stuffed with beet balls, vegan soured cream and avocado salsa. The lasagne is a must-order: layers of courgette, tomato sauce, cashew truffle cream, basil pesto and fresh basil leaves. On the main menu, highlights include homemade chevrette croquettes (crispy, deep-fried shrimp balls with herb mayonnaise) and nutty smoked beetroot with a tamarind dressing. The signature dish is also a showstopper: free-range Mauritian chicken curry with tomato chutney, mango pickle and faratha, a Mauritian flatbread. Printed on the menu is an invitation: “If you love it, ask for a lesson on how to make it from the chef.” The next morning I put on an apron in the resort’s state-of-the-art kitchen as head chef, Rehad Khader, shows me how to pound herbs, spices and chillies to a paste on a local volcanic stone slab. Along with the complimentary cookery sessions (you can also learn how to knock up vindaye: fish coated in turmeric, chilli, ginger and mustard seeds), the Salt Bakery offers bread-making classes and the bartenders mixology lessons. Keeping the Salt ethos in mind, I drive to the capital, Port Louis, an hour away, to join a street-food tour, passing pineapple plantations, fields of aubergines and corridors of sugarcane along the way. The Taste Buddies guide, Dada, gives us a potted history covering the discovery of the island by the Arabs and the arrival of the Dutch, French and British settlers, before leading us off to graze our way around the city’s different neighbourhoods. Our first stop is a roti stall, where Indian flatbread is spread with chilli and tamarind sauce and rougaille. Dubbed the soul of Mauritian food, this spicy tomato, thyme and chilli-laced ragout forms the basis of many local dishes. We dip into a tiny, off-the-beaten-track bakery, tuck into dholl puri (delicate pancakes made from yellow split peas and wrapped around a bean curry, rougaille and coriander chutney), then pull up a stool for a bowl of dumplings (fish balls, chou chou and sao mai) swimming in a light chicken broth. “Mauritian hangover food,” Dada smiles. In Chinatown, Dada dishes up more history (the arrival of Indian and Chinese workers after the abolition of slavery) along with gloopy steamed sweets made from rice flour and sweet lentil paste. In the Central Market we peel longan (a cousin of the lychee), chew sticky tamarind sweets with a vicious chilli kick and drink fresh sugarcane juice. Less touristy is the Sunday open-air market in Flacq, five minutes from Salt, the largest outdoor market on the island. I mooch around stalls piled high with coconuts, okra, plump purple aubergines, mangos, breadfruits and curry leaves. On the way back I swing by roadside snack bar, Ti Baz, for Jimmy Armoogum’s homemade tamarind juice: dark, almost syrupy, and sweet with a hint of saltiness. On my last night, Vimla, one of the hotel’s ‘Salt Shakers’ (a team of local experts), takes me to the village home of Mirella Armance, who hosts supper club dinners in her garden – with the help of her nine daughters and husband, Alain. The evening starts with an aperitif: a table under the mango and frangipani trees is lined with bottles of homemade flavoured rums: coffee, passion fruit, ginger, rosemary, vanilla, spice and cinnamon. Crammed around tables under the stars we tuck into chicken curry, rougaille, bean curry, green papaya gratin, and a little jar of spicy chilli paste. It’s hearty home cooking. “If we don’t have chilli, we don’t eat,” Vimla laughs. We even dip fresh pineapple into chopped chilli and salt. Alain is teaching the table some Creole phrases and regaling us with tales of his fishing trips. Vimla chats about her years studying in Canada and how her 17-year-old son hopes to become a chef. Anais, one of Mirella’s daughters, tells us they had 150 for lunch the day before to celebrate her niece’s christening. “Just a small gathering.” And then the Sega music starts, the singing and the dancing, guests and family together under the night sky. It’s a warm, all-enveloping Mauritian hug of a final evening. Words by Lucy Gillmore, May 2019 Photographs by Lucy Gillmore, Getty Follow Lucy on Instagram and Twitter @lucygillmore
Head to the foodie Balearic islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. Here you can try homemade fig jam, soft sugary buns and sobrasada for breakfast before exploring the islands' vineyards and olive groves
Looking for places to eat in the Balearics? Here are our favourite restaurants, hotels and foodie tours to take in the Balearics. The best foodie spots include farm-to-table restaurants, luxury hotels and cookery classes in Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. Mallorca: foodie hotels and things to do Son Brull – best foodie farmhouse in Mallorca Guests at gastronomic bolthole Son Brull can ask the kitchen to pack a gourmet picnic if they’re heading out to hike or bike around the surrounding hills. This elegant finca, or farmhouse, in the foothills of the Serra de Tramuntana, dates back to the 12th century but the approach to food is bang up to date. The kitchen garden, where chef Rafel Perello sources the ingredients for his inventive menus and cookery classes, brims with home-grown herbs, salad leaves and vegetables while the trees surrounding the hotel are laden with oranges, lemons and figs. The hotel also has its own organic vineyard; pair its wines with dinner in the fine-dining restaurant, 365, where seasonal eight-course tasting menus showcase local Mallorcan ingredients. More casual, bistro-style, dining can be had in the bar (with its ancient olive press) during the winter or on the terrace in sunnier months. Doubles from £361, check availability at booking.com The elegant finca, or farmhouse, in the foothills of the Serra de Tramuntana Culinary Tours – best food tour in Mallorca For a private olive oil tasting or a tailor-made tour of Mallorca Deborah Pina Zitrone, of Deborah's Culinary Island, is the woman to call. Mallorca-born but with a French mother, the former lawyer now creates off-the-beaten track itineraries for visitors who want to explore the hidden corners and cultural heritage of this well-known island. Olive oil is her passion, however, and she has trained as an Extra Virgin Olive Oil sommelier. She is also a private chef, and offers cookery classes and workshops on Mallorcan gastronomy between stints as a culinary guide for guests at gourmet bolthole Gran Hotel Son Net in the Serra de Tramuntana (sonnet.es). Full- and half-day bespoke culinary tours are available, as are olive oil tastings and themed lunches. For a more in-depth culinary tour, look out for Deborah’s one-off events and holidays. In May 2019 she is co-hosting a week-long Mediterranean Retreat in partnership with Carmen Ruiz de Huidobro of Espanolita; guests will stay in a rustic-chic finca on the Son Rullan estate, near Valldemossa, and spend their time visiting local farmers markets, ancient olive oil groves and mills, vineyards and cookery classes. deborahsculinaryisland.com; espanolitatrips.com Rustic-chic finca on the Son Rullan estate, near Valldemossa Hotel Sant Francesc – best foodie hotel in Palma Food-focused short breaks at design hotel Sant Francesc, in the historic heart of Palma, include a paella masterclass with the hotel's head chef, Alfonso Lillo, and a tour and tasting at a gin distillery in the Santa Catalina neighbourhood (with tips on how to distil at home). With its historic setting – a restored 19th-century neoclassical mansion rich with original frescos and murals, cool verandas and wooden coffered ceilings – the hotel makes a perfect base for exploring Palma's gourmet markets and delis. Return from a hard day’s food shopping and spend time relaxing by the glamorous rooftop pool or splashing out on dinner in the restaurant, Quadrat. The restaurant, a vision of crumpled linen and painted wood in the property’s former stables, is the setting for Lillo's tasting menu peppered with Mediterranean-inspired dishes such as cream of grilled sweetcorn with tomato and avocado ceviche. Doubles from £163, check availability at booking.com A plate of sushi at Hotel Sant Francesc Menorca: foodie hotels and things to do Torralbenc – best luxury hotel in Menorca A cluster of 19th-century whitewashed farm buildings, with views out over the sparkling Med, Torralbenc is now a luxury hotel, surrounded by 70 hectares of fields, orchards and vineyards in the south-western corner of Menorca. The restored estate not only makes its own olive oil but also produces wine. Starting with just five hectares of vines in 2006, the property now has 16 hectares dedicated to growing grapes. Its first wine was bottled in 2016 and the estate now produces a merlot and syrah blend (all red berries and spicy black pepper with a tinge of toasted vanilla), a bright rosé from indigenous monstrell and parellada grapes (floral with strawberries and cherries on the palate) and an easy-drinking white blended from sauvignon blanc, viognier, chardonnay and parellada with citrus, stone fruits and floral notes. Guests can book a vineyard experience with the hotel's oenologist, exploring the vineyards on foot or by bike, learning how the wines are produced and enjoying a tasting, with local Menorcan cheeses, among the vines. Doubles from £178, check availability at booking.com Learn how the wines are produced and enjoying a tasting, with local Menorcan cheeses, among the vines Menorca Food Tours – best food tours in Menorca There's more to Menorca than mayonnaise (or mahonnaise) and gin – although the island’s Xoriguer gin is justifiably famous. This laid-back, low-key island has been flying somewhat under the foodie radar but Annie B's Spanish Kitchen is set to change all that by launching week-long gastronomic tours of the island, guided by local expert Lorraine Ure. Showcasing local food producers, the trips include a wine tasting and lunch at Binifadet Vineyard, a visit to a cheesemaker and cocktail-making classes. Add in time for mooching around markets, cookery classes focusing on traditional Menorcan specialities, gin-tastings and gourmet dinners in a smattering of the island's best restaurants and you have the recipe for a delicious introduction to the local food scene. anniebspain.com Colourful chillis hanging in the market on Annie B's Spanish Kitchen Food Tours Hotel Ses Sucreres – best quirky hotel in Menorca Hotel Ses Sucreres, in the village of Ferreries, is a quirky bolthole that epitomises the laid back, low-key authenticity of the island a world away in style from high profile party isles Mallorca and Ibiza. The hotel is decked out with reclaimed furniture, geometric prints and modern photography. There are six bedrooms and relaxed breakfasts are served in a leafy courtyard garden – think homemade fig jam, soft sugary buns, local slithers of Mahon cheese and salty air-cured ham, sobrasada, the local sausage, smashed tomatoes and olive oil smeared on freshly baked bread. Doubles from £105, check availability at booking.com Ses Sucreres bedrooms decked out with reclaimed furniture, geometric prints and modern photography Ibiza: foodie hotels and things to do Finca Can Marti – best rustic retreat in Ibiza A pine-cradled rural idyll in a leafy valley in the north of Ibiza, Finca Can Marti is a 400-year-old, whitewashed farmhouse turned rustic-chic retreat. All muted cream and beige tones, with terracotta tiled floors, ancient beams and white walls, the finca is surrounded by 42 acres of organic orchards, vegetable plots, strawberry fields, olive groves and vineyards. The fruit and vegetables are sustainably grown on the farm and sold in the estate’s small organic shop, along with homemade jams, extra virgin olive oil and free-range eggs – which you can also enjoy at breakfast, along with a feast of fruits and freshly baked bread. Once a week the finca also offers dinner. Ten minutes’ walk away is the sleepy village of San Juan, with its smattering of local restaurants and a traditional market every Sunday. Or you can simply hole up on site lounging by the natural pool (the water is free from chemicals, circulated through a lava stone filter, oxygenated by a waterfall and cleared of impurities by aquatic plants). Then zone out, with an Ayurvedic and Thai massage under a pergola, trying not to peep at the dreamy view beyond. canmarti.com Love Food Ibiza – best plant-based workshops in Ibiza Chef and food editor Tess Prince launched Love Food Ibiza as an outlet for her recipe blog and YouTube videos after falling in love with the island and relocating there from the UK in 2013. She arranges tours of the island's gastronomic hotspots, organic farms and artisan producers and can be booked for private dinners or vegan cookery classes; smaller workshops take place in her outdoor kitchen in San Carlos, followed by lunch on the terrace with dreamy views over Tagomogo island, while larger groups are hosted at organic farm Ca'n Pere Mussona, in the heart of the countryside, the ingredients hand-picked that day for a real field-to-fork experience. Plant-based food, gut nutrition and the ayurvedic approach to eating are all discussed over a welcome kombucha-based mocktail at the workshops, while typical lunch menus include Ibiza white sweet potato with crushed avocado, preserved lemon and crispy dulse, or pink cauliflower falafel in beetroot pancakes with minted vegan kefir labheh and pistachio dukkah, followed by raw vegan desserts such as stacked cheesecake with berries and acai and pitaya puree, or chocolate, orange and cardamom mousse. lovefoodibiza.com Pots of chocolate, orange and cardamom mousse topped with orange slices and edible flowers. Credit: Nigel Edgecombe Casa Maca – best farm-to-fork restaurant in Ibiza Almond, carob and fig trees surround Casa Maca, a rural hotel in the hills of Can Palau with a restaurant headed up by chef, David Reartes, and views down towards Ibiza Town. This converted whitewashed farmhouse is 300 years old; an olive oil press in the lobby is a nod to its agricultural heritage. The restaurant's ethos has been dubbed “farm to table with flair”, its Mediterranean menus showcasing local organic ingredients. Think snapper ceviche with mango to start, followed by a Buddha bowl of bulgar wheat, chickpea, pumpkin, sesame, hummus, avocado, kale, radish and fresh greens or tuna poke with salmon roe and crispy garlic. casamaca.com The restaurant's ethos has been dubbed “farm to table with flair”, its Mediterranean menus showcasing local organic ingredients Formentera: foodie hotel Can Tres – best foodie retreat in Formentera Hop on the ferry from Ibiza to Formentera, the barefoot baby of the Balearics, for endless sweeps of sand backed by dunes and pine trees, crystalline waters and a hippy-chic vibe. This is where jaded clubbers come to hide out – and eat (sustainable) sushi and ceviche washed down with caipirinhas by the beach. There's a slower pace of life on Ibiza's chilled-out little sister, with its peppering of traditional villages and a nightly market during the summer. Base yourself at Can Tres, a clutch of three architect-designed houses surrounded by citrus and olive trees, all hanging beds and heavenly hammocks, thatched terraces perfect for lazy breakfasts of fruit from the gardens, freshly baked bread and homemade jam, and vivid splashes of colour against a pure white canvas. It’s also just a pebble's throw from Migjorn beach with its smattering of funky beach bars and restaurants. Doubles from £87, check availability at booking.com A clutch of three architect-designed houses surrounded by citrus and olive trees, all hanging beds and heavenly hammocks Words by Lucy Gillmore
Foodie road trip in Australia's McLaren Vale wine region
Drive just 45 minutes south from Adelaide to discover South Australia’s best-kept secret – a laid-back land of eccentric winemakers, abundant farmers’ markets, wild beaches and gourmet boutique hotels
Want to tour Mclaren Vale wineries? Hop on one of Mclaren Vale's wine tours and visit Australia's wine region south of Adelaide... Until now the Fleurieu peninsula has been South Australia’s best-kept secret. In Adelaide, the state capital, locals tend to innocently point tourists towards the Barossa and Clare Valleys, or to tourist hot spot Kangaroo Island, which dangles off the peninsula’s southern tip. Yet with Fleurieu (pronounced floo-ree-oh) just a 45-minute drive away – virtually Adelaide’s backyard – they’re starting to get wise. The Fleurieu has a Mediterranean climate, laid-back vibe, wild, windswept beaches (you might recognise the glorious sweep of Maslin Beach from Russell Crowe’s film The Water Diviner), swathes of silvery olive groves, a clutch of field-to-fork eateries and farmers’ markets along with more than 70 boutique wineries. Within the peninsula, McLaren Vale is the birthplace of the South Australian wine industry and home to some of the world’s oldest grapevines. This is shiraz country, the vineyards rolling right down to the beach. The cooling winds flowing from the Mount Lofty Ranges to the coast also create the perfect climate for cabernet sauvignon and grenache. Mclaren Vale Wineries What is McLaren Vale's USP? Most of the cellar doors are family owned, not commercial. Whether they’re the old brigade or the new vanguard, they’re all one-offs. D'Arenberg Wine-making is full of complexities. McLaren Vale’s larger-than-life winemaker, Chester Osborn, pondered how to showcase this strange alchemy. His response was the d’Arenberg Cube, a dazzling glass and steel structure that has been dubbed ‘Willy Wonka’s wine factory’. A wonderfully bonkers box of a building, it materialises, Tardis-like, out of the vines like a half-finished Rubik’s Cube. As you approach, eyes entranced by an optical illusion at the entrance, soft music (activated by weather stations among the vines) lures you in. Inside the five-storey attraction, restaurant and tasting rooms, visitors take a surreal Alice in Wonderland trip through a sensory aroma room padded with blowsy rose heads and strung with bottles of fragrant fruit and flowers, past a psychedelic art installation and a virtual fermenter, emerging into a light, bright rooftop tasting area. There you can sample wines with names as intoxicating as the vintages: The Anthropocene Epoch is the company’s first biodynamic wine, all ballsy beetroot and berries. The Athazagoraphobic Cat (a blend of sagrantino and cinsault grapes) is squeaky new leather and herbs laced with mouth-puckering tannins, while The Old Bloke & the Three Young Blondes’ gnarly wood and spice-steeped shiraz is tempered with three flirty floral, fruit-frilled whites (roussanne, viognier and marsanne). Love it or loathe it, the d’Arenberg Cube has put the Fleurieu Peninsula on the map since launching at the end of last year. darenberg.com.au Bekkers vineyard Stop at the pared-back, sleekly styled tasting room at Bekkers vineyard. Australian/French couple Toby and Emmanuelle Bekkers produce just three wines: a grenache, syrah grenache and a syrah. The 2016 grenache has a hint of aniseed. The 2015 had more clove on the palate, Emmanuelle tells us. The syrah grenache is silkier: adding syrah to the mix changes the texture, she explains. The syrah is intense, dense but still silky. bekkerswine.com Hugh Hamilton: The fifth generation to oversee one of the region’s most picturesque wineries (hughhamiltonwines.com.au). Wirra Wirra: Biodynamic Wirra Wirra dates back to 1894 and its winemakers like to hurl watermelons from a medieval siege machine – it’s their thing (wirrawirra.com). Samuel’s Gorge: A rustic cellar up a dirt track in an old olive mill overlooking the Onkaparinga Gorge (gorge.com.au). Alpha Box & Dice: One of the new kids on the block, this young team produces small-batch vintages, the cellar a ramshackle old stable strewn with vintage armchairs, a piano, pinball machine and stuffed armadillo (alphaboxdice.com). McLaren Vale wine tours A handful of specialist companies offer wine-tasting tours if you don’t want to worry about drinking and driving... Off Piste Tours: Jump into Ben Neville’s 4x4 and head off the beaten track, exploring the lesser-known side of the Fleurieu. Bump along dusty dirt tracks in the Onkaparinga River National Park, stopping safari-style on a hillside to sip a glass of local viognier as kangaroos hop among the trees, before careering down a dirt track lined with rustling red gum eucalyptus for a riverside picnic. offpistetours.com.au Wine Diva Tours: Clamber into Greg Linton's car to visit some of the region's unique wineries. More info here: winedivatours.com.au The Shiraz Trail: If you’d rather go under your own steam you can cycle The Shiraz Trail, a four-mile route along an old railway line between McLaren Vale and Willunga. Where to eat in the McLaren Vale Bocca di Lupo at Minimalist Mitolo For lunch in the McLaren Vale swing by this starkly modern winery. Minimalist Mitolo looks as though it’s been constructed out of shipping containers and has an industrial vibe. The on-site restaurant, Bocca di Lupo, combines contemporary Australian and Italian cuisine in innovative dishes such as baby beetroots, liquorice sponge, walnut and chocolate, and charcoal maltagliati with asparagus, lemon and truffle parmesan. mitolowines.com.au Star of Greece Pull up outside legendary seafood restaurant, Star of Greece, a rickety beach shack teetering on the clifftop at Port Willunga. The Fleurieu is also famous for its fish, the King George whiting in particular. Tuck into fish and chips Fleurieu style, along with Kangaroo Island salt and pepper squid, citrus aïoli and lime, watching surfers in the waves far below. starofgreece.com.au The Salopian Inn At The Salopian Inn chef-owner Karena Armstrong serves contemporary Australian dishes such as soy-braised kangaroo tail with chilli caramel and szechuan salt. salopian.com.au Pizzateca Try gourmet wood-fired pizzas such as fontina, salami and homemade chilli chutney, or homemade pork and fennel sausages with wood-smoked mozzarella, fior di latte and freshly sliced fennel. pizza-teca.com Willunga Farmer's Market Graze your way round Willunga Farmers’ Market. The first in South Australia, established in 2002, it hosts around 80 artisan producers, and holds special night markets with live music. Willunga is a picture-postcard heritage town with just a whiff of the Wild West. Mooch around stalls of organic fruit and vegetables, local honey, charcuterie and cheeses and buy bags of juicy peaches and tiny, crunchy Paradise pears. Little Acre Foods stand has long queues but it is worth the wait for moreish mushroom panini oozing deep, dark mushrooms smeared with melted raclette and gruyère. willungafarmersmarket.com.au Port Elliot and around After a few days in McLaren Vale venture south to the tip of the peninsula, jutting into the Southern Ocean. Here you’ll find the old Victorian seaside resort of Victor Harbor, 19th-century town Goolwa (renowned for its cockles and the mouth of the Murray River) and the Coorong National Park. Port Elliot Bakery Driving through quaint Port Elliot with its low-slung old buildings, cool beach boutiques, old-fashioned grocery stores and heritage trail, clock the queue snaking out the door of the legendary Port Elliot Bakery, famous for its meat pies. portelliotbakery.com Flying Fish This seafood restaurant on the gentle curve of sand at Horseshoe Bay specialises in the likes of scallops with wasabi and ginger, Streaky Bay King George Whiting (battered, grilled or herb-crumbed), and lemon peppered squid. flyingfishcafe.com.au The Beach Huts The Beach Huts in Middleton, just two blocks from a fabulously wild stretch of sand, are little clapboard cottages, candy coloured and cute. Noosa hut is retro-chic with soaring white ceilings and a mid-century vibe. In the fridge you'll find breakfast provisions – along with a complimentary bottle of bubbly from Langhorne Creek. beachhuts.com.au McLaren Vale accommodation Along with gourmet boutique hotel The Australasian (australasian1858.com) and rustic restaurant, art gallery, cellar door and b&b Red Poles (redpoles.com.au), a handful of new winery sleepovers are opening up, including Hotel California Road, a micro-hotel at Inkwell Wines (inkwellwines.com). The Vineyard Retreat The Vineyard Retreat is a cluster of four luxury cottages on a 15-acre working vineyard. These have a New England vibe – think wraparound verandas, wood-burning stoves, a smattering of antlers, tongue and groove, taupe and cream colour palettes, soaring ceilings and sweeping views over regimented rows of shiraz and old grenache vines. In August, owners Anthea and Stu Cross added a luxury ‘cadole’ glamping pod to the mix with another one to follow later in the year (cadoles were small vineyard huts used for centuries in France). The couple bought the property five years ago because they fell in love with the views – some of the best are from the hilltop hot tub. The cottages’ well-stocked kitchens include welcome packs of local produce including smoked bacon from Ellis Butchers (ellisbutchers.com), free-range eggs and a bottle of chilled viognier from nearby Yangarra Estate Vineyard in the fridge (yangarra.com). You can also order local tasting platters from Lisa Robertson at Waywood Wines – on my second night I devour goat’s curd, crusty bread, duck, pork and fig terrine, a beetroot dip, fig chutney, traditional saucisson, camembert and quince paste (waywoodwines.com). thevineyardmv.com.au How to get to McLaren Vale Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula Return flights from London Heathrow to Melbourne via Abu Dhabi start at £696 (etihad.com). Return flights from Melbourne to Adelaide start from £120 (virginaustralia.com). For more info see southaustralia.com. Follow Lucy on Instagram and Twitter @lucygillmore
Tassie may once have been seen as a sleepy backwater, but the island’s creative food scene now attracts chefs and tourists keen to try charcoal and blackcurrant cordial, dived-to-order sea urchins and sheep-whey vodka
Looking for places to eat in Tasmania? Read about our foodie road trip in Tasmania, including places to stay and eat in Hobart, Tasmania's riverside capital. It might be the gateway to Antarctica, but Hobart is hotter than Hades. Not in meteorological terms, of course – Tasmania, Australia’s southernmost state, is closer to Shetland in temperature than Sicily, but its culinary scene is sizzling. Whispers of the island’s lotus-eater pace of life and bountiful natural larder – from oysters and abalone plucked straight from the sea to wagyu beef and Cape Grim rainwater so clean they bottle it – has caused a stampede of hotshot chefs moving over from the mainland (read about Sarah Glover below). There’s plenty of homegrown Tasmanian talent too. This is an island of innovators and oddballs who love nothing more than to shake things up a little. Got some sheep? Lets make vodka from the sheep’s cheese whey. Whisky? Why not knock up a still in the barn and use a tumble dryer as a malting machine? Campfire cook up with Sarah Glover Instagram favourite Sarah Glover swapped life as a pastry chef in Sydney and New York to rediscover her culinary roots – and became a poster girl for outdoor cooking along the way – back on her home turf of Tasmania (her new cookbook, WILD, a collaboration with photographer Luisa Brimble, is part recipe collection, part adventure handbook). sarahglover.com.au Where to eat and drink in Hobart, Tasmania Faro at Mona (Museum of Old and New Art) Tasmania’s big-guns-blazing attraction is the creation of one man’s whimsy. David Walsh’s phenomenal art collection is wonderfully bonkers, irreverent and also home to one of the hottest tables in town, Faro (there’s a winery, Moorilla, next door for post-culture-vulture tastings; moorilla.com.au). Faro, the tapas bar and restaurant, is all brushed concrete, black tiles and huge picture windows looking out over the water. Sip a Night is Day, a black mocktail made with active charcoal, tonic water and homemade blackcurrant cordial, before a lunch of tender chargrilled octopus on a bed of deliciously smoky aubergine purée and punchy, pungent pickles. mona.net.au Gourmania food tour Over the past few years, Hobart has evolved into a hotbed of culinary innovation and the energy is palpable. A Gourmania food tour is a good way to get your gastronomic bearings and have a taste of the city. gourmaniafoodtours.com.au Pigeon Whole Bakers Pop in to the white marble-and-glass bakery, Pigeon Whole Bakers, for a sugary swirl of cardamom-laced carbs. A counter is laid with freshly assembled pastries, while bread loaves of all shapes and sizes (try the popular organic sourdough) spill out of wooden crates at the back. pigeonwholebakers.com.au Franklin – for industrial chic dining Another Sydney stowaway is Analiese Gregory, who now heads up the kitchen at Hobart hotspot Franklin. All polished concrete, cowhides and diaphanous drapes, it has an industrial vibe. We start with raw albacore tuna with tomatillo and soy-cured egg yolk, gossamer-light yet rich. Next we tuck into raw Bruny Island wallaby with pickled mulberry, mushroom and fresh horseradish. The combination is ridiculously moreish. For dessert there’s feather-light whipped brown butter and salted caramel, sandwiched between wafer-thin crispy potato rectangles. It looks brown and bland but tastes sweetly sensational. Happy in her new home, Analiese admits: “I had real chef envy when I visited from Sydney. There’s such a great energy here.” And then there’s the produce – sweet sea urchins can be scooped from the seabed and be on the table by lunchtime. franklinhobart.com.au Salamanca Market Graze your way around the Saturday Salamanca Market to sample artisan leatherwood honey, Tasmanian truffle oil and salt (tastruffles.com.au) – and sheep-whey vodka. Knock back a thimble sized measure of the 12-month oaked vodka and savour its beautiful butterscotch sweetness. Institut Polaire – for wine and martinis With more cool white marble and grey leather, this bar has chilly class and shakes up icy Sud Polaire Antarctic dry martinis. Pulling up a bar stool, however, we're swayed by its micro-batch Domaine Simha wines: the Rani riesling has notes of wildflower honey, the 2015 chardonnay citrus, white peaches, apricots and a hint of vanilla. institutpolaire.com.au Willing Bros – for wine There’s now a slew of cool wine bars in Hobart, including bare-brick watering hole Willing Bros. Here you can sit at the marble counter and choose a bottle from the rack. 'Wine food' includes charcuterie served with homemade piccalilli and sourdough, marinated olives or plates of Tasmanian and European cheeses. @WillingBros Ettie's – for speakeasy vibes with food Ettie’s, a basement piano bar and bistro, for late-night night candlelit lounging. The European bistro-inspired menu focuses on Tasmanian produce. Start with Pacific oysters and country terrine with sherry prunes, before the likes of roasted duck ravioli, red wine and radicchio risotto with gorgonzola, and octopus, white beans and ‘nduja vinaigrette. Or, pop in for a glass of wine in the bottle-stacked wine room on the ground floor. etties.com.au Fico - for a hip bistro Tiny hipster eateries are springing up all over town. We can’t vouch for Fico as it was closed for refurbishment, but enough people rolled their eyes when we mentioned the pared-back net-bistro to make us believe the hype. The produce is all sourced from locals, with whom the owners are on friendly first-name terms – pigeons from Phil, turnips from Tony and calamari from Ross. ficofico.net Dier Makr – for a tasting menu Dier Makr is downright alchemy. Kobi Ruzicka and Sarah Fitzsimmons wing it out front, performing culinary and mixological acrobatics in their hip hangout. The six-course tasting menu showcases unusual flavour combos. Perch at the counter and tuck into anchovies and lemon rind, a mouthful of intense oily saltiness with a sharp citrus edge. The mussels and turnip is extravagantly good, the baby turnips grilled, the larger turnips pickled and thinly sliced, and the fermented turnip paste giving the dish a pungent heat. All complemented by a tantalising, cloudy orange wine. diermakr.com Places to eat and drink in Tasmania on a foodie road trip Hartshorn Distillery and Grandvewe Farm Ryan Hartshorn of Hartshorn Distillery, aka the Vodka Shepherd, has taken the family farm off on a top-knot-friendly tangent. Not content with making cheese, he bought a still and started experimenting. The result is an award-winning vodka, its distinctive black bottles all hand-painted. You can also visit the farm, Grandvewe Cheeses, 25 miles south of Hobart, for a cheese-tasting or cheese-making session. They make eight different types including Brebichon, a sheep’s-milk version of reblochon (nutty and sweet) and Sapphire Blue, which is salty and creamy, like roquefort. grandvewe.com.au Tasmania Whisky Trail There’s more to Tasmanian wine these days than a cold-climate pinot. Along with cider (the island is known as the Apple Isle) and sheep-whey vodka, you can also down a dram or two on the Whisky Trail. The world woke up to Tasmanian whisky when Sullivans Cove French Oak won World’s Best Single Malt in 2014. Head out on a whisky-tasting tour with Brett Steel of Drink Tasmania (drinktasmania.com.au), through rolling farmland to bucolic Nant (nant.com.au), pioneering Old Kempton (oldkemptondistillery.com.au), Belgrove, and grand Shene Estate. taswhiskytrail.com Shene Estate Shene, a crumbling 19th-century estate, has been restored and given a new lease of life by David and Anne Kernke. In their smart timber distillery the couple make Irish-style triple-distilled whiskey and an award-winning gin, Poltergeist, infused with 12 native Tasmanian botanicals. shene.com.au Belgrove Estate Belgrove is as rustic as Shene is polished. Whisky-making maverick, Peter Bignell, is, Brett tells me, a creative genius. A sheep and arable farmer with a surplus of rye, he built his own copper still and started distilling in the old stables. An old tumble dryer in the yard is the malting machine. Black Rye, his take on Kahlúa, made with grappa, rye and coffee, is his biggest seller (for espresso martinis). Noma’s Rene Redzepi is a fan; when he created a pop-up in Sydney in 2016, he put Belgrove spirits on the menu. Surrounded by fields of barley, rye and wheat, it’s the ultimate paddockto-bottle set-up. “Or dirt to drink,” the whisky wizard says with a wry smile. belgrovedistillery.com.au The Agrarian Kitchen cookery school Tasmania’s first paddock-to-plate cookery school, meanwhile, is half an hour outside Hobart in the Derwent Valley. Rodney Dunn, one-time Sydney-based editor of Gourmet Traveller magazine, watched back-to-back box sets of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage before deciding to create an Tasmanian version. With his wife, Séverine, he founded The Agrarian Kitchen in 2008, a cookery school in a 19th-century schoolhouse on a farm in Lachlan. In 2017, he opened a light, bright eatery in nearby New Norfolk, celebrating local, seasonal and sustainable produce. We pitch up at the cookery school and wander around the garden with Séverine. The herb garden is brimming with lemon balm, Mexican tarragon, rosemary, thyme, chamomile and mint; the orchard’s branches are heavy with fruit; 100 types of tomatoes are growing in the polytunnels; and chickens and Wessex Saddleback pigs roam the fields. theagrariankitchen.com Tasmanian Seafood Seduction tour The small boat chugs out of the harbour along the Derwent River to the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, separating Tasmania from Bruny Island. Freshly shucked oysters come thick and fast, followed by oysters poached in champagne on deck. Lee, the guide, scrambles into his wetsuit and dives off the boat. Clambering up the ladder, his bag bursting with spiny sea urchins and abalone, lunch is a smorgasbord of sweet, saltwater-laced seafood: sustainable, hyper-local, seafloor-to-fork dining. It’s devilishly good. pennicottjourneys.com.au Hobart Tasmania hotels <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=71026X1546147&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.en-gb.html%3Flabel%3Dgen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaFCIAQGYAS64ARjIAQzYAQHoAQH4AQuIAgGoAgQ%26lang%3Den-gb%26sid%3D33c3fa277f0d08b0b1bd2df681f354b8%26sb%3D1%26src%3Dsearchresults%26src_elem%3Dsb%26error_url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.en-gb.html%3Flabel%3Dgen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaFCIAQGYAS64ARjIAQzYAQHoAQH4AQuIAgGoAgQ%3Bsid%3D33c3fa277f0d08b0b1bd2df681f354b8%3Bac_click_type%3Db%3Bac_position%3D0%3Bcheckin_month%3D2%3Bcheckin_monthday%3D21%3Bcheckin_year%3D2019%3Bcheckout_month%3D2%3Bcheckout_monthday%3D22%3Bcheckout_year%3D2019%3Bcity%3D-1578440%3Bclass_interval%3D1%3Bdest_id%3D-1578440%3Bdest_type%3Dcity%3Bdtdisc%3D0%3Bfrom_sf%3D1%3Bgroup_adults%3D2%3Bgroup_children%3D0%3Bhighlighted_hotels%3D271318%3Binac%3D0%3Bindex_postcard%3D0%3Blabel_click%3Dundef%3Bno_rooms%3D1%3Boffset%3D0%3Bpostcard%3D0%3Braw_dest_type%3Dhotel%3Broom1%3DA%252CA%3Bsb_price_type%3Dtotal%3Bsearch_selected%3D1%3Bshw_aparth%3D1%3Bslp_r_match%3D0%3Bsrc%3Dsearchresults%3Bsrc_elem%3Dsb%3Bsrpvid%3D529173434e06008c%3Bss%3DThe%2520Henry%2520Jones%2520Art%2520Hotel%252C%2520Hobart%252C%2520Tasmania%252C%2520Australia%3Bss_all%3D0%3Bss_raw%3DHenry%2520Jones%2520Art%2520Hotel%3Bssb%3Dempty%3Bsshis%3D0%3Bssne_untouched%3DHobart%26%3B%26ss%3DTasmania%2C%2BAustralia%26is_ski_area%3D%26ssne%3DHobart%26ssne_untouched%3DHobart%26city%3D-1578440%26checkin_monthday%3D21%26checkin_month%3D2%26checkin_year%3D2019%26checkout_monthday%3D22%26checkout_month%3D2%26checkout_year%3D2019%26no_rooms%3D1%26group_adults%3D2%26group_children%3D0%26b_h4u_keep_filters%3D%26from_sf%3D1%26ss_raw%3Dtasmani%26ac_position%3D0%26ac_langcode%3Den%26ac_click_type%3Db%26dest_id%3D616%26dest_type%3Dregion%26place_id_lat%3D-42.112301%26place_id_lon%3D147.118779%26search_pageview_id%3D529173434e06008c%26search_selected%3Dtrue%26search_pageview_id%3D529173434e06008c%26ac_suggestion_list_length%3D5%26ac_suggestion_theme_list_length%3D0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Looking for places to stay in Tasmania? Here are some boutique hotels in the area MACq 01 The glamorous new design hotel MACq 01 on Hobart’s harbour has architectural pizzazz and an imaginative concept: each of the 114 rooms is named after an extraordinary character in Tasmania’s colourful history (from Jørgen Jørgensen, king of Iceland turned Tasmanian convict, to Ma Dwyer, legendary landlady and madam of the local brothel) and guests can join complimentary door-to-door storytelling tours. <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=71026X1546147&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fhotel%2Fau%2Fmacq-01.en-gb.html%3Flabel%3Dgen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaFCIAQGYAS64ARjIAQzYAQHoAQH4AQuIAgGoAgQ%26sid%3D33c3fa277f0d08b0b1bd2df681f354b8%26srpvid%3D3548732eaa31006a%26checkin%3D2019-02-21%26checkout%3D2019-02-22%26ucfs%3D1%26srpvid%3D3548732eaa31006a%26srepoch%3D1541175774%26highlighted_blocks%3D226853501_99206073_2_2_0%26all_sr_blocks%3D226853501_99206073_2_2_0%26room1%3DA%2CA%26hpos%3D1%26hapos%3D1%26dest_type%3Dcity%26dest_id%3D-1578440%26srfid%3D9a617c7f1ff35f21df8b44591477c7dc70c42bb9X1%26from%3Dsearchresults%3Bhighlight_room%3D%23hotelTmpl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">For the best deals on rooms at MACq 01, click here macq01.com.au Henry Jones Art Hotel Wharf warehouse in style, this vision of slatted wood is in the same stable as the Henry Jones Art Hotel, also on the waterfront but set in an old jam-making factory. <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=71026X1546147&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fhotel%2Fau%2Fhenry-jones-art.en-gb.html%3Flabel%3Dgen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaFCIAQGYAS64ARjIAQzYAQHoAQH4AQuIAgGoAgQ%26sid%3D33c3fa277f0d08b0b1bd2df681f354b8%26srpvid%3D529173434e06008c%26checkin%3D2019-02-21%26checkout%3D2019-02-22%26ucfs%3D1%26srpvid%3D529173434e06008c%26srepoch%3D1541175817%26highlighted_blocks%3D27131804_109167300_0_2_0%26all_sr_blocks%3D27131804_109167300_0_2_0%26room1%3DA%2CA%26hpos%3D1%26hapos%3D1%26dest_type%3Dcity%26dest_id%3D-1578440%26srfid%3D13e042ddff315a176d2430567017a439720b7427X1%26from%3Dsearchresults%3Bhighlight_room%3D%23hotelTmpl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">For the best deals on rooms at Henry Jones Art Hotel, click here thehenryjones.com How to get to Tasmania Return flights from London Heathrow to Melbourne via Abu Dhabi start at £696 (etihad.com). Flights from Melbourne to Hobart start from $118 one way (virginaustralia.com). For more info see discovertasmania.com.au. Follow Lucy on Instagram and Twitter @lucygillmore.
Foodie road trip in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia
Read our expert foodie guide to Friuli-Venezia-Giulia in Italy. Sandwiched between Vienna and Venice, and bordered by Slovenia, Austria and the Veneto, this corner of Italy has an eclectic food culture that spans tiramisu, apple strudel, nutty coffee, rustic ham-stuffed loaves and minerally white wines
Looking for things to do in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia? Read our expert foodie guide to Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Trieste, Italy. Including a guide to Trieste's Venezia and Collio wine region for Friuli wine... Where to eat and drink in Trieste A sour spat is raging over Italy’s most famous dessert. Who invented tiramisu? Those in the Veneto splutter that the dessert is theirs, created in Treviso in 1969. However, last summer the Italian government decreed that neighbouring Friuli-Venezia Giulia was the birthplace of the creamy, coffee laced concoction after cookery writers Gigi and Clara Padovani unearthed documents proving once and for all that tiramisu had been served in restaurants there since the 1950s. At Harry’s restaurant, cocooned within the Grand Hotel Duchi d’Aosta on stately Piazza Unita d’Italia in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s capital, I dip my spoon into a shot glass frothing with cocoa dusted whipped cream, plunging down to the icy shot of deep, dark espresso underneath. On the side is a slim wafer sandwich oozing creamy mascarpone custard. ‘Like a tiramisu’ is the tasting menu’s wishy-washy stance, the deconstructed dessert a surprise amid the heavy-draped, old-world elegance. But then, you’d expect a restaurant in the same stable as the Veneto’s infamous drinking den, Harry’s Bar in Venice, to sit on the fence. It’s all a bit of a storm in an espresso cup, the crema whipped up by hot air – or perhaps a blast of the bora wind, which whistles through this north-eastern corner of Italy. Trieste, once a grand maritime port, is sandwiched between Vienna (read our foodie guide to Vienna) and Venice (we've got the best places to eat and drink in Venice here) at one of the most strategically important crossroads in Europe. The region stretches from the Adriatic coast to the Alps (click here for the best foodie ski resorts in the Alps) via the vine-threaded hills of the Collio, and is bordered by Slovenia (check out some of the best restaurants in Slovenia here) and Austria as well as its Italian sparring partner. The Romans, Byzantines and Austro-Hungarians have all left their mark. You can clamber around a Roman amphitheatre, wander through grand palazzo-lined piazzas and the Jewish ghetto’s narrow alleys, and soak up the sumptuousness of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian’s 19th-century palace, Miramare Castle. It’s a melting pot of cultures – and cuisines. Goulash and sauerkraut sit side by side with gnocchi and spaghetti on blackboard menus, while pasticceria Eppinger bakes strudel and sachertorte as well as local speciality, presnitz, a pastry coil stuffed with grappa-soaked fruit and nuts. If there’s one region of Italy (discover some of the best Italian foodie trips here) never likely to be touted as the new Tuscany, this is it. Coffee, not a coffee-laced dessert, is Trieste’s claim to fame, however. This is the home of coffee giant Illy – and its university (unicaffe.illy.com). In the 18th century Trieste became a gateway for coffee into Europe, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries opulent Viennese-style coffeehouses sprang up where writers and revolutionaries would huddle in corners. The oldest still in operation is Caffe Tommaseo, founded in 1830. Coffee culture remains king. People here drink almost twice as much coffee as anywhere else in Italy and even have their own vocabulary – a “capo in b” is a mini cappuccino in a bicchiere or small glass. If you want an espresso, order a “nero” – but only in Trieste. Anywhere else and you’ll wind up with a glass of red wine. Sandalj, overlooking the city’s Grand Canal (Venice’s has the edge), has been an importer of green coffee beans for more than 70 years. Here, I have a tutored tasting. Two tiny espresso cups are lined up, one taller and thinner to “nose”, 31/2g of sugar added to the short cup. It’s easier to tell if the bitterness is covering a defect in the beans if you add sugar, I’m told. The tasting is done on a spoon with a short, sharp slurp to break down the oil and release the aromas. The Colombian arabica is complex, with fruity apricot notes and some acidity. The Ethiopian arabica is slightly astringent with a hint of peanut. Sandalj has created 20 blends, named after composers. Vivaldi, 100% arabica with citrus, passion fruit and a spicy honey aftertaste, gives a cappuccino a hint of sweet ginger. The company also trains baristas and develops bespoke blends for bars and restaurants, including the most famous café in Trieste, Caffè San Marco. Founded in 1914, this was a favourite haunt of novelist James Joyce. I pull up a stool at the bar and order a gocciato (an espresso with a dash of milk), drinking in the café’s old-world charm, the cool jazz playlist and, with a nod to its literary heritage, the in-house bookstore. Before lunch I swing by a Trieste institution, Gran Malabar, for an aperitivo (Piazza San Giovanni 6; 00 39 040 636 226). Locals prop up the marble bar, glass of wine in hand, flicking through newspapers. Shelves are crammed with some of the 600 or so vintages from the cellar along with well-thumbed books on wine. The region is famous for its whites and the wines from the karst, the limestone plateau circling the city, reflect its distinctive terroir. Friulano is one of the regional varietals but I’m drawn to winemaker Edi Kante’s vitovska. Kante, one of the pioneers of orange wine, was the first to believe that the grape was strong enough to withstand a whipping from the bora winds and the rocky ground. The wine is dry, mineral-laced with a hint of salt from the sea. Another Trieste institution is the buffet, a handful of hole-in-the-wall joints serving nose-to-tail pork. The most famous is Buffet da Pepi, dating back to 1897, but I join the scrum, three deep at the counter, at Trattoria da Giovanni, with its cramped cluster of tables spilling outside and wooden casks of local wine, for a ham, shaved horseradish and hot mustard baguette. I’m staying at the Savoia Excelsior Palace, a Belle Époque grand dame overlooking the Gulf of Trieste. From my balcony I can look down on the 21/2-mile promenade or Lungomare, which curves round the bay, packed with gelato-guzzling holidaymakers in summer. It’s just a short stroll to Piazza Unita d’Italia, the largest seafront square in Europe and perfect for an aperitivo. The old fish market on the seafront, dating back to 1913, has been converted into an eye-catching exhibition space, but many of the trattorias in this seaside city still specialise in seafood. For dinner, I’ve been given a top tip: tiny Alla Sorgente, hidden down a small alley, its rustic tables decorated with flowers and a moreish signature dish, barbon fish fillets fried in rich pistachios on a crunchy bed of bitter red radicchio, a local speciality (Via della Sorgente 2; 00 39 347 939 6519). Where to eat and drink along the Collio wine route The next day sees me veering inland to explore the Collio wine route, stopping off first in UNESCO World Heritage Site Cividale del Friuli, on the river Natisone. Founded by Julius Caesar in 50BC it’s home to an exquisite eighth-century temple, a 15th-century bridge over a river gorge, and gubana, a sweet pastry-clad delicacy (and cousin to the presnitz) packed with honey and grappa-marinated pine nuts, raisins and bitter chocolate. Trattoria al Giardinetto in the little town of Cormons, has been in the Zoppolatti family for more than a hundred years and is run by three brothers, one a TV chef (Via Matteotti 54; 00 39 048 160 257). George Zoppolatti shows me the rosa di gorizia, the radicchio grown here from November to March. It looks like a deep-red rose, its bitterness the perfect foil for the fatty richness of the venison salami antipasto I’m tucking into. After lunch George produces a digestivo made from the outer leaves, a bit like a syrupy Campari. These gently rolling hills are peppered with artisan producers. The Zoff biodynamic farm on the edge of the hamlet of Borgnano near Cormons has been in the same family for three generations. They breed a small herd of Italian red pezzata cows and produce organic raw milk, yogurt, ricotta, latteria and caciotta cheese to sell from their small farm shop. The cows are grass-fed in the summer and eat herb-laced hay from their fields in winter. The wheels of caciotta cheese are coated with herbs and flowers (rosemary, thyme, nettle, rose petals, marigold and elderflower) and aged for a month. The dairy diversification doesn’t end there – they have five rustic b&b rooms – from byre to bed. The Gravner family’s vineyards are another passion project, straddling the Slovenian border and cultivated biodynamically. Josko Gravner cares for the vines, the land, the wildlife, the cycles of the moon. He ferments the wines on the skins, creating the orange hue, and ages them in giant clay amphorae from Georgia, buried in the earth. The wines are nurtured like children. “We believe at seven years old a wine is old enough to go out into the world,” Josko’s daughter Mateja laughs. The 2008 Bianco Breg is a blend of pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and riesling. It’s big and bold, bone dry and round in the mouth. “I like to think of it as a 16-year-old boy going to a club and showing off.” The ribolla is more elegant. “It has no need to show off.” Sometimes you are lucky enough to stumble on a place that blows you away. Gravner is one of those, Josko Gravner more alchemist than winemaker. My bed for the night is on another family vineyard, home to Roberto and Alessia Picech. My breakfast the next morning, at a communal table with views of sun-soaked vines, is an artisan spread with montasio cheese, prosciutto di cormons, rich coffee, homemade grape juice – and a succulent slice of apple strudel. No one is arguing about that. HOW TO GET TO TRIEST AND FRIULI-VENEZIA-GIULIA Return flights from Gatwick to Venice start at £80 (ba.com). WHERE TO STAY IN TRIESTE Double rooms at Savoia Excelsior Palace start from €125, b&b; and at Picech from €100, b&b. For more information see turismofvg.it. Words by Lucy Gillmore. Follow Lucy on Instagram and Twitter @lucygillmore. Photographs by Alamy, Getty, fabrice gallina, Ulderica Da Pozzo, Maurizio Valdemarin, Luigi Vitale, Lucy Gillmore, Savoia Excelsior Palace Trieste – Starhotels Collezione
Melbourne foodie guide: where locals eat and drink
Its multicultural make-up and an influx of pioneering chefs has helped Melbourne take the crown as Australia’s culinary capital. Whether you’re after cardamom and roast pistachio ice cream, a rooftop gin cocktail or whipped emu egg, the southeastern city caters for all
Want to know what to do in Melbourne? Read our foodie guide to where to eat, including the best restaurants in Melbourne. Melbourne food experiences If you want to find your foodie feet in Melbourne turn to Allan Campion. A chef turned food writer, with a library of cookbooks and food guides under his belt, Campion founded Melbourne Food Experiences in 2002. His food tours include the grazing and give you the lowdown on the secret spots you'd be mad to miss. Melbourne after Dark, for instance, steers you down tiny alleyways to some of the city's coolest cocktail bars, such as Union Electric's new rooftop gin bar, where the gin list includes Yarra Valley's Four Pillars - or go wild with a signature Lola cocktail, a heady ginger, gin, curacao and coconut cream concoction. melbournefoodexperiences.com.au The best coffee shops in Melbourne Where can you get a decent coffee in Melbourne? Cold-drip, AeroPress, siphon or espresso, flat white or long black? Coffee is king, customers are connoisseurs and baristas and micro-roasters are gods in Melbourne. This is the city that invented the flat white after all – or so they say (that's a latte with less milk and a smoother texture – it's all about the micro-bubbles). The roll call includes sleek, pared back Sensory Lab (which also holds barista classes), Market Lane (which roasts its own single origin beans and offers public cuppings - tastings) and Industry Beans (also famous for its bagels). marketlane.com.au; sensorylab.com.au; industrybeans.com Spring Street Grocer The Spring Street Grocer might sound like a local corner shop but it's not. Upstairs it's a gourmet food store but most miss the spiral staircase down to the extraordinary cheese cellar – and Australia's first underground cheese maturation rooms, where regular cheese tastings and workshops are held. Try Holy Goat artisan cheeses from Sutton Grange organic farm – Black Silk is a tangy, ash-coated, fresh curd pyramid. There's also a bakery and espresso bar and, on the way out, hit the gelato counter for what is - possibly - the best ice cream in the world. The seasonal selection changes daily with flavours including cardamom and roasted pistachio, chestnut and rosemary and an eye-poppingly refreshing watermelon and mint sorbet. springstreetgrocer.com.au Atlas Dining The hottest young chef in a city that sizzles with culinary talent is Charlie Carrington, whose innovative concept restaurant, Atlas Dining, combines his two passions: travel and cooking. Every four months he hits a different country, takes notes on native ingredients and key flavours and then distils them into a spectacular tasting menu. Since 2016 he's taken diners from Vietnam to Israel, Mexico to Korea and (currently) Peru. His Peruvian menu showcases flathead ceviche with avocado purée, sweet potato, onion and a zingy tomato and passion fruit jus while 'potato, ocopa, aji' is his kick-ass take on the tamale. There's also a nod to Peru's Japanese fusion cuisine: a roasted fig with a miso and smoked eel paste has a subtle smokiness, with lime giving a citrus hit. atlasdining.com.au Lamb, arroz, uchucuta at Atlas Dining Beechworth Honey This sleek boutique in the Block Arcade is all clean lines and stylised tree murals hiding shelves – stocked with honey: 37 different types. Beechworth Honey specialises in single-varietal Australian honey categorised by flavour style: Bee Delicate (mild and light), Bee Fruity (lively eucalypt honeys), Bee Warm (caramel and butterscotch notes) and Bee Bold (dark and strong). A complimentary tasting helps you to choose. Bee Delicate Ironbark is light, buttery and great with pancakes while Bee Fruity Green Mallee is a good marinade. Then there's the Bee Cause Landscape Honeys (river, mountain, coastal, meadow) launched to support the fourth generation family of beekeepers' work to save the Australian honeybees. beechworthhoney.com.au Attica No stranger to the world's best restaurant lists, Attica lives up to the hype. Ben Shewry's tasting menu takes you on the culinary ride of your life. Wash your hands first as you'll be using your fingers - and listening to tall tales. There's a narrative element to many of the dishes, such as An Imperfect History of Ripponlea in Three Tarts. Each of the bitesize tarts represents one of the communities that lived in Ripponlea: from the Bunurong people to the English and Jewish settlers. 'Our Vegemite, Our salada' is a nod to Aussie school kids (homemade vegemite, tomatoes and crackers) while 'Green Ant Pav' is a tiny savoury pavlova with a dusting of green ants for a citrus explosion. Dessert is 'whipped emu egg' in a vibrant emerald eggshell served with Daintree chocolate ice cream and quandong. attica.com.au QT In the psychedelic elevator of design hotel QT Melbourne the sassy voiceover might send you scurrying to the restroom on your way up to the award-winning rooftop bar: “you’re looking a little peaky go and rub some rouge in your cheeks”. The views are worth the confidence-kicking ride. Try a Tarty Twist (Tanqueray Gin, grapefruit, lime and rosemary infused syrup) or a Rooftop G&T (West Winds Sabre gin, elderflower quinine, fresh lime, cucumber, rosemary-infused sugar and Capi cucumber soda). Back on the ground floor there's also a Cake Shop and a branch of Japanese knife shop, Tanto, where chefs and foodies can have their knives sharpened or buy specialist sashimi-slicing blades such as the blue steel, ebony and black Australian buffalo husk handled Kiritsuke Hayate knife. qthotelsandresorts.com Annam Nudging up against Chinatown, Annam is not your run-of-the-mill Vietnamese. This pan-Asian joint, with its open-kitchen and martial arts movies playing on a loop, is the vision of chef Jerry Mai who founded popular pho and banh mi stalls, Pho Nom. Annam is an area between Cambodia and Vietnam and the flavours are a Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thai fusion with a nod to China – don't miss the signature oxtail dumplings braised in sarsaparilla. The Instagram-ready dishes are designed to share. Try the blackened, squid ink-coated cuttlefish with prickly ash, fried in a crunchy rice flour and Sichuan pepper batter. annam.com.au Charcoal Lane Charcoal Lane has not one but two USPs: this restaurant in funky Fitzroy dishes up an innovative take on 'bush tucker' and runs a training programme for disadvantaged and indigenous young people – a bit like Jamie Oliver's Fifteen. The menu of modern native Australian cuisine features starters such as roasted emu fillet with a Thai herb crust, sandalwood nut salad, quandong (a desert fruit) and witlof (chicory) while, for mains, you can tuck into chargrilled kangaroo with beetroot reduction and celeriac purée or Parma ham-wrapped wallaby. charcoallane.com.au Seafood and Oyster Spot At the Seafood and Oyster Spot, in Queen Victoria Market, they shuck 300 dozen oysters every Saturday (at Christmas that rises to 2,000 dozen a day). This historic landmark opened in 1878 and, spread over seven hectares, is the largest open-air market in the southern hemisphere. Inside you'll find organic butchers, fishmongers and a dairy hall – check out Curds and Whey, the last remaining butter specialist and cheesemongers. There are almost a thousand traders here. You can mooch around the stalls or take a guided market tour. qvm.com.au For more information see: visitmelbourne.com Words and photographs by Lucy Gillmore
Foodie road trip in Chiang Mai, Thailand
This multicultural city, in Thailand’s mountainous north, showcases the region’s distinctive cooking style in dishes such as sesame soft-shell crab tempura and fiery roast duck curry
Looking for things to do in Chiang Mai? Read our expert guide to the best restaurants and foodie experiences in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand's distinctive cooking region. When visiting Chiang Mai expect tom yum soups, roast ducks and sticky rice, and plenty of rich curries and broths. Now discover 10 things we love about Thai cuisine. Back in the 13th century Chiang Mai was the capital of the Lanna Kingdom. Sandwiched between Burma to the west, Siam to the south, China to the north and Laos to the east, it was a tropical – and fertile – independent mountain state. Over the centuries this ancient kingdom, with its Buddhist temples, towering teak forests and verdant vegetation, was fought over, invaded and eventually swallowed by Siam, which, in the middle of the 20th century, became Thailand. Today, what was once a remote mountain kingdom is, less romantically, the northern corner of Thailand. Some things don’t change. Lanna means ‘land of a million paddy fields’ and the landscape is still swathed in a shimmering shawl of emerald green while, in the markets, stalls are stacked with sacks of rice. Sticky rice, or khao niaow, is to be pinched between your fingers and eaten with nam prik – spicy dipping sauces. Unsurprisingly, Lanna cuisine is a melting pot of flavours. The typical central and southern Thai staples of coconut milk and palm sugar were not readily available in the highlands. Instead the larder was stocked with roots and shoots, snakes, wild game and grubs from the jungle, the signature flavours sour and earthy. Even the rice here dances to its own tune. “Sticky rice is soaked overnight then cooked in steam, not water,” chef Thiwawan – “call me Yiu” – tells me as we meander around the smart San Sai market. The clear white grains are what we would think of as normal rice, she explains; the short, fat, creamy grains are sticky rice. “You can also get black sticky rice. There are more vitamins in the black shell, but not everyone likes the crunchy texture.” I am staying at the Dhara Dhevi hotel, on the outskirts of the city, and have signed up for a morning market visit and cookery class. The resort sprawls over 60 carefully landscaped acres, its ornate architecture a medley of the region’s rich cultural heritage from Chinese to colonial, Burmese to Lanna. It has an air of Disneyland about it, modelled on an ancient Thai city complete with palace, temples, lakes, moat and magnificent gateways. It’s part luxury resort, part living museum with a craft village and traditional wooden rice barns, alongside high-gabled teak and brick villas, and suites peppered throughout the paddy fields. Some of the more rustic wooden villas huddle around a kitchen garden while guests can sign up for a rice-planting class in the paddy fields – the vegetables and rice grown at the resort are donated to local monks and the needy. The vegetables for the hotel come from Royal Project Thailand, an organic farm diversification project set up by the late king to help hill farmers switch away from growing poppies for opium production. Back on the market visit, Yiu explains how central a role the market plays in Thai culture. “You do your shopping here, meet your friends, eat, even go to the barber – the market is where it all happens.” As we stroll she points out young jackfruit, small bird’s-eye chillies, two types of garlic… “Thai garlic is tiny and very strong. We fry it and eat the skin too. Coriander is sold with the root on – that’s the best part. Chilli jam and Thai chilli paste are the secret ingredients in tom yum soup. Fish sauce is our main seasoning.” Ready-made bundles of herbs (kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal and chilli) for the soup are tied together on another stall. A pungent smell emanates from a bucket of gloopy grey shellfish. “Those are pickled blue crabs from the rivers and rice fields. We put them in raw papaya salad with palm sugar, fish sauce, lime and peanuts.” The closed bud of what looks like a giant purple tulip is a banana flower, and is used as an ingredient in curries. At another stall a yellow watermelon catches my eye. “That’s honey watermelon. It’s less sweet but crunchier than traditional watermelon.” Bags of coconut cream line another counter, while a giant mangle squeezes piles of grated coconut. “The first press is the cream, then water is added for the second to produce coconut milk.” Back at the Dhara Dhevi I don an apron in the cookery school kitchen. We’re making lunch, including tom kha khai (coconut soup with chicken and galangal – sometimes called Thai ginger). We chop the lemongrass diagonally so that more of the aroma is released into the soup. Heating the chicken stock, the lemongrass, galangal and torn kaffir lime leaves are added, then the chicken thighs. Next we add the coconut milk, mushrooms and chilli, fish sauce, fresh lime juice and sweet chilli paste. It’s so simple, sweet and spicy, and catches the back of my throat as I slurp greedily from the spoon. After a few days on the outskirts of Chiang Mai I move to a boutique hotel within the ancient city walls. The leafy branches of a 200-year-old tamarind tree cast dappled shade over the courtyard garden of the Tamarind Village hotel. So close to the 700-year-old Wat Umong temple that you can hear monks chanting in the morning and evening, the building design is based on the traditional Lanna style, with low-slung whitewashed walls and dark timber set around a cluster of courtyards. The approach, through a rustling bamboo corridor, takes you from the screeching, swerving, exhaust-billowing, tuk-tuk-crammed streets into a tranquil oasis – where tamarind suffuses everything from the spa treatments (the signature tamarind paste scrub) to the restaurant menu. For dinner I flip-flop down to the Ruen Tamarind restaurant, which spills out onto the poolside. The appetisers are a food stylist’s dream: pretty sesame soft-shell crab tempura with a chilli, lime and sweet and sour tamarind dip, and bite-sized miang chaploo tuna, moreish mouthfuls of fragrant fish, lemongrass, shallots, ginger and lime in herb leaf parcels crowning mini shot glasses. Ua nor mai is a seasonal local delicacy of tender deep fried bamboo shoots stuffed with minced pork, chilli and lemongrass, the young sprouts packed with vitamins. For the mains I tuck into pan-fried tom yum goong (seared tiger prawns) topped with tangy chilli paste and seasoned with lemongrass, galangal, shallots, fresh lime juice and roughly chopped cashew nuts; and gaeng ped yang linchee, succulent slices of roast duck and lychee in a fiery red curry sauce. Desserts of juicy slices of mango, creamy coconut ice cream and sweet sticky rice are too tempting to resist. The next morning I’m up early to join the hotel’s daily village walk, which takes in a handful of local temples from Wat Pan Tao, constructed from an 18th-century wooden palace, to Wat Chedi Luang, which dates from the 15th century and once housed the Emerald Buddha (now in Bangkok’s Grand Palace). There are around 36 temples in Chiang Mai the guide tells me. And, at times, it feels like as many markets and bazaars. After the temple tour I wander wide-eyed for an hour or so around the indoor Warorot market hall before hungrily grabbing lunch in its basement food hall, tucking into a bowl of khao soi, a rich curry and coconut broth with egg noodles and chicken, a wedge of lime and shallots on the side. I hit the streets again that night on one of the city’s many Street Food Tours (chiangmaistreetfoodtours.com, chiangmaifoodtours.com and tasteofthailandfoodtours.org), each of which take small groups by foot, bike or songtaew (the city’s distinctive red taxis) around the city. We start at the stalls threading along the pavement at Chang Phuak Gate, on the northern edge of the old city. The air is heavy with the aroma of pork meatballs and chicken smoking on makeshift grills, and groups of hungry diners chatter as they wander from stall to stall. I spot a sizzling coil of Chiang Mai pork sausage on a barbecue. Flavoured with lemongrass and coriander, it’s fiery and fragrant. As the light fades we join the crowd queuing at a cart on the side of the road. It’s Chang Mai’s famous Cowgirl, brandishing a cleaver and working her way through a huge pile of pork. Grabbing a seat at a table nearby we place our order. The mound of meat comes with rice and a boiled egg – hearty and wholesome. We then weave through the streets to the stalls at Chiang Mai Gate. It’s not all Lanna cuisine. There are Chinese dishes and spicy Isaan classics from north-eastern Thailand. Even stalls selling Japanese sushi, gyoza and noodles. But then, that’s nothing new. Chiang Mai has always been at the heart of a cultural – and culinary – crossroads. HOW TO DO IT Double rooms at the Dhara Dhevi cost from £460, b&b (dharadhevi.com) and at the Tamarind Village from £131, b&b (tamarindvillage.com). Return flights from Heathrow to Bangkok cost from £557 (thaiairways.com). From there, return flights to Chiang Mai cost from £55 return (bangkokair.com). More info: tourismthailand.org. Words | Lucy Gillmore Photographs | Royal Project Foundation, Lucy Gillmore Follow Lucy on Twitter and Instagram @lucygillmore, #olivetravels.
The Dunstane Houses, Edinburgh: hotel review
We review the Dunstane Houses, a newly refurbished hotel set between two grand old buildings in Edinburgh where you can sink into sleek copper bathtubs, feast on haggis bonbons with whisky mustard mayo and sip a gin, rhubarb and pepper tonic
Looking for hotels in Edinburgh? Check out our expert review of Edinburgh hotel, The Dunstane Houses. The Dunstane houses is one of Edinburgh's best boutique hotels. Expect vintage pieces with contemporary design, bags of personality and, signature gin cocktails. Orkney-born Shirley and Derek Mowat left the northerly archipelago for London in 1988 but screeched to a halt in the Scottish capital, opening their first guesthouse in Edinburgh’s Trinity neighbourhood. Now their latest venture has just opened in the same city, The Dunstane Houses. Set back off a busy road on the way into – or out of – Edinburgh, Dunstane Houses is a two-for-the-price-of-one boutique hotel made up of Dunstane House, a rambling Victorian mansion designed by architect William Playfair in 1852, and its equally stately sister property, Hampton House, across the road. Both are just a ten-minute stroll from the city's West End. Re-launched this summer, the million pound refurbishment was orchestrated by London-based interior designer Hannah Lohan whose portfolio includes Foxhill Manor and The Fish in the Cotswolds and La Escondida, Terry Venables' boutique hotel in Spain. Lohan mixes vintage pieces with contemporary design and, for Dunstane House, she has seamlessly woven in the Mowats' Orkney heritage, peppering rooms with traditional tweeds and historic black and white photographs of island life (elsewhere, the hotel's Edinburgh and Orkney-themed art collection has been curated by local artist Nicky Brooks, from the Red Door Gallery in the city’s Old Town). The overall impression is the antithesis of an anonymous boutique hotel. Dunstane House has bags of personality and personal touches. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, returning guests are greeted like old friends. It feels like the perfect hybrid: a cosy family-run guesthouse and a sumptuous small hotel. The food at Dunstane Houses With no traditional hotel restaurant the dining options are relaxed. An all-day dining menu (well, 12-9.30pm) is served in the light, airy lounge with its low-slung seating, peppering of tables and deep velvet sofas. The lounge opens into the bar with its darker, more dramatic, décor and cluster of higher tables where you can also grab a bite. The menu, divided into wee bites, bigger bites and sides, champions Scottish produce and also reflects the Mowats' Orkney roots. Signature dishes include Cullen Skink with artisan bread, honey-glazed, crispy Ayrshire Clash Farm pork belly and pan-seared, hand-dived Orkney scallops with cauliflower Mornay and Campbell's black pudding. The crispy Campbells haggis bonbons with Glenkinchie single malt whisky and Arran mustard mayo were cloyingly moreish, rich and delicious, the scallops perfectly cooked, the traditional whisky-slaked Cranachan a wicked medley of whipped cream, malt, honey and raspberries. It's all good, albeit slightly safe. But that's fine. If it's eye-poppingly innovative cuisine you're after you're spoilt for choice in Edinburgh. Michelin-starred restaurants jostle for space with quirky communal rustic dining spots. Bag a table at Norn, down in Leith, or a seat at The Table's single table (there are 10 chairs) for a sparkling set tasting menu. The Edinburgh Food Studio will broaden your culinary horizons while Edinburgh stalwart David Ramsden (of The Dogs) has just opened The Fat Pony (no website) on Bread Street, a bijoux wine bar with around 20 wines by the glass (including organic and biodynamic) and a selection of charcuterie and local cheeses. The wine bar, by all accounts, is having a renaissance in Edinburgh… The drink at Dunstane Houses Talking of drink, the hotel’s Ba’ Bar takes its name from the traditional Orcadian street football game. The dark paintwork and mustard velvet chairs and backlit whisky cabinet give it a cosy vibe. Try one of the signature cocktails such as the refreshing Gin, Rhubarb and Pepper tonic made with rhubarb bitters and grated black pepper – or a Whisky Spice (single malt, chilli sauce, ginger ale and lime). There's a wide range of local craft beers, the 15 or so artisan gins are all Scottish bar one (Sipsmiths if you're interested), including a bottle of the recently launched Old Tom Rhubarb Gin from the Orkney Gin company, while the whisky menu (with tasting notes) is around 60-strong. The bedrooms at Dunstane Houses For now, book one of the 16 newly revamped rooms in Dunstane House – Hannah Lohan hasn’t yet worked her magic over the road, though plans are afoot that she will (there are 35 rooms split between the two properties). Spread over three floors, all with Orkney-inspired names, I was in the Scapa Suite on the first floor, the large sash windows framing views of the Pentland Hills in the distance. The bed was a (very comfy) chunky black four poster with a burnt orange velvet chaise longue at its foot and a glamorous deep copper bathtub set against gold peacock feather wallpaper. The shower room had a geometric-patterned tiled floor and fixtures and fittings from Fired Earth. Other nice touches included a digital Roberts radio, fresh milk in the fridge and a bag of crumbly Scottish tablet. Sneaking a peak at some of the other rooms I glimpsed oversized tweed headboards, Scottish wool throws and Persian rugs. Up in the eaves the cosy double, Auskerry, comes with a telescope for stargazing. The breakfast Breakfast at a low-slung lounge table was, unsurprisingly, relaxed, the bar spread with a giant bowl of luscious-looking strawberries, a picnic hamper of pastries, artisan breads and traditional cereals. The menu is divided into Healthy, Sweet and Hearty. I was tempted by the porridge with whisky and cream but instead opted for the bircher muesli with almond milk, grated apple, blueberries and cinnamon. Other guests were tucking into oak-smoked Orkney kippers but I chose the Full Scottish with Ayrshire back bacon, rare-breed Clash Farm pork sausage, Campbell's haggis and black pudding, tattie scone, grilled tomato and poached eggs from Lintz Hall Farm. Don’t miss Take a tour of the Edinburgh Gin Distillery, just a short walk away in the West End. (Take a look at our favourite British gins here). You can also book a bespoke private tour of Edinburgh or over the Firth of Forth to the Kingdom of Fife in one of owner Derek Mowat’s vintage cars. Double rooms at Dunstane Houses start from £174 b&b. <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=71026X1546147&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fhotel%2Fgb%2Fdunstanehousehotel.en-gb.html%3Faid%3D304142%26label%3Dgen173nr-1FCAEoggJCAlhYSDNYBGhQiAEBmAExwgEDYWJuyAEM2AEB6AEB-AECkgIBeagCBA%26sid%3D33c3fa277f0d08b0b1bd2df681f354b8%26srpvid%3D10ad61764f5e00b0%26checkin%3D2019-05-08%26checkout%3D2019-05-11%26ucfs%3D1%26srpvid%3D10ad61764f5e00b0%26srepoch%3D1540561903%26highlighted_blocks%3D10819606_91909266_0_2_0%26all_sr_blocks%3D10819606_91909266_0_2_0%26room1%3DA%2CA%26hpos%3D1%26hapos%3D1%26dest_type%3Dcity%26dest_id%3D-2595386%26srfid%3D35731d4a33ed3f1ce0dd53e487c0e0421632947fX1%26from%3Dsearchresults%3Bhighlight_room%3D%23hotelTmpl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">For the best deals on rooms at Dunstane Houses, click here More info: edinburgh.org Words | Lucy Gillmore Photography | Rita Platts While you're visiting Dunstane Houses, make sure you check out our favourite places to eat and drink in Edinburgh, including this lovely coffee shop...
Explore this quieter corner of southern France and you’ll be rewarded with fresh liquorice tisanes, slow-cooked lamb, flaky fougasse filled with anchovies and olives… and gummy bears
Our expert guide to the best restaurants, cafes and bars in the beautiful town of Uzes in southern France. In this authentically French town you will find picholine olives, local asparagus and focaccia-style bread filled with anchovies and olives. Now find out the best hotels in Paris. Slow travel doesn’t get more quintessentially French than puttering down a dirt track fringed with fields of apricots and vines in a Citroën 2CV, the roof down, a Panama-wearing guide at the wheel. I had followed my nose to the Gard, in the Occitane region, on the western edge of Provence, but now that I was here my nose was twitching with sensory overload. Pungent truffles and gummy bears? Just two of the more unusual ingredients on the menu in Uzès, one of those achingly pretty French towns whose Chocolat-style looks make it seem like a Hollywood film set. Indeed, its plane-tree-pricked Place aux Herbes once starred in the Gérard Depardieu movie Cyrano de Bergerac. Uzès is surrounded by truffle plantations and hosts a truffle festival every January, while confectionary giant Haribo opened Le Musée du Bonbon here in 1996. The company is synonymous with the gummy bears invented by German founder Hans Riegel in 1920, but it’s liquorice that is Uzès’ traditional industry. Liquorice has been produced here since the 18th century. Today, spindly liquorice plants line the entrance to the museum and even the air outside is laced with a sugary sweetness. Your ticket comes with a bag of sweets to suck as you wander from room to room learning about the history of sugar and the candy-making process before ‘nosing’ some of the ingredients. Pressing a button releases a puff of vanilla, cacao or liquorice into the air. At the end of the Willy Wonka-style experience there’s a shop where you can stock up on your favourite sweets. This less well-known corner of France is just 40 minutes from Avignon, where you can jump off the Eurostar as it hurtles on to Marseilles. Once here the pace is far more leisurely. The Gard department rolls down to the Mediterranean from the mountains of the Cévennes. Between the two is the garrigue, a landscape of dry, stony soil the colour of peaches pricked with scrubby vegetation and herbs that scent the air with rosemary, thyme and wild mint. The Gard’s larder is well stocked from the honey and chestnuts of the Cévennes to the asparagus and strawberries of the garrigue and tellines, the tiny shellfish found along the coast. The area has no fewer than a dozen AOP/AOC and five PGI products that have gained protection, including beef and rice from the Camargue, olives, olive oil and strawberries from Nîmes, sweet onions from the Cévennes and Pélardon goat’s cheese. Today, Uzès is a honeypot, but until about 50 years ago it was a rundown little town – with potential. The French government designated it a ville d’art et d’histoire and helped to restore the ruined buildings, putting in place strict building regulations and a Farrow & Ball-style colour palette. Parisian restaurateurs and hoteliers soon began to trickle down opening chic b&bs such as boutique hideaway L’Albiousse in an elegant 16th-century townhouse and L’Artemise an old mas (farmhouse) a short walk out of town, its rooms splashed with contemporary art. Tourists are now drawn to the town’s maze of honey-hued alleys lined with art galleries, brocantes and interiors shops. The Gard’s most famous tourist attraction is the Pont du Gard, a World Heritage site and part of the Roman aqueduct that took water from a spring near Uzès to Nîmes and whose three tiers soar over the Gardon river and its dramatic gorge. Uzès itself, however, has its share of sites to tick off including the cathedral of Saint Théodorit with its ornate Romanesque bell tower, the Fenestrelle, the Duke’s palace and the Medieval Garden in the grounds of a ruined château which has around 450 plants, many medicinal, and is a lovely spot to unwind with a liquorice tisane after clambering up the tower’s 100 steps for a sweeping panorama. Uzès also attracts a foodie crowd to its legendary food market held on Saturdays and Wednesdays, specialist shops such as Le 8ème Péché hidden away through an artisan pottery and an underground cellar stocked with local vintages, cookery schools such as Le Pistou and a smattering of picturesque pavement cafés and restaurants. I was spending my first night at La Maison d’Uzès a luxurious Relais & Châteaux hotel in one of the town’s historic buildings. Fittingly, my room, up a winding stone staircase, was named Le Boudoir with its sumptuous red velvet daybed and Rapunzel-like views down onto a tangle of tiny streets. The restaurant, all parquet floors and vibrant velvet chairs, has a Michelin star and its chef, Christophe Ducros, celebrates the Gard’s local produce. Before dinner, however, I wandered down to the Place aux Herbes to sip a glass of rosé outside Terroirs on the square as toddlers chased pigeons under the plane trees. Inside it’s part restaurant part posh grocery, the shelves crammed with artisanal olive oils, terrines and wines. Back at the hotel’s restaurant, La Table d’Uzès, I was seduced by the eight-course tasting menu’s tantalising blank page and took a leap of culinary faith. A dish of local asparagus with slithers of kumquat and salty caviar with an orange vinaigrette was light and zesty. As the lid of the slow-cooked ‘egg onsen with truffles’ was lifted a pungent hit of truffle filled the air while the intense nuttiness and crunch of courgette and chives gave texture to the softly poached egg. Surf ‘n’ soil rather than surf ‘n’ turf seemed to be the ethos of the fish dish, Mediterranean sea bass with wild asparagus and wild morels. The earthy mushrooms added depth without overpowering the delicate fish. The next morning I woke to church bells. It was Saturday and market day. That night I was staying at La Maison d’Ulysse in the little village of Baron, 15 minutes outside Uzès. Owners Guy Toullelan and Gauthier Vandendriesseche restored the 16th-century farmhouse and converted it into a gourmet hotel. They have just launched a series of gastronomic itineraries with guide Florian Stoll in his 2CV incorporating a tour of the market as well as hands-on culinary workshops with New Zealand food writer and chef Peta Mathias featuring seasonal specialities such as pissaladière – an onion, anchovy and black olive tart. The Place aux Herbes was now crowded with stalls piled high with local asparagus and strawberries. I wandered through the aisles with Florian grazing on local Picholine olives and Pélardon goat’s cheese, sampling artisanal olive oils and stocking up on pungent tapenades and garlic confit, a tub of addictively fragrant white spheres. Joining the queue at boulangerie Fougasse d’Uzès we bought fougasse, the local speciality, a hot flaky focaccia-style bread, filled with anchovies and olives. Armed with everything we needed we clambered into the car and set off for a picnic among the grape vines. I spent the rest of the afternoon working off lunch, cycling through the vineyards and climbing up a rocky path to the village’s ruined castle. Afterwards I flopped by the pool in the hotel garden, planted with fig, olive, almond and apricot trees, raspberry, strawberry and redcurrant bushes. There’s also a kitchen garden brimming with tomatoes, aubergines, peppers courgettes, chillies and fresh herbs. Before dinner Guy and Gauthier suggested a visit to their neighbour Claude Gendrot’s organic winery Cressance for a tasting. Claude has 16 hectares of vines, a shed, rusty tractor and a passion for soil. “The soil is more important than the grape.” Picking up a handful of dirt he thrust it under my nose to smell. When he had the choice between buying a shiny new tractor or drafting in two soil experts, he picked the scientists. As the sun began to set, he lined up a handful of bottles on a makeshift table. Burying our noses in the 2015 Rocailles, a white made from vermentino grapes aged in oak, we picked out floral notes and a hint of pepper. His signature red is simply Le Rouge, a single varietal, made using the chenanson grape. “Le Rouge is for pleasure,” he smiled. Clutching a couple of re-corked bottles we headed back for dinner where the hotel’s two young chefs Valérie Lucas from Réunion and Daniel Jarrin Molin from Ecuador dished up a moreish starter of artichokes, egg and turmeric-roasted hazelnuts followed by an unctuous slow-cooked lamb marinated for hours in marsala wine. The next morning was another feast. I tucked into a breakfast of fresh pear and pineapple with a black dusting of vanilla, crêpes smeared with Gauthier’s homemade fig jam and scrambled eggs with chives from the garden. Then a toot of the horn signalled it was time to hit the road again with Florian. You can visit some of the local truffle plantations and in the summer they put on demonstrations. Les Truffières d’Uzès is a 15-hectare plantation owned by Michel Tournayre who walked me through the avenues of oaks talking dogs, demos and his experimentation with Turkish hazelnut trees. There are two seasons: January to March for black truffles and May to July for white truffles. Now was not truffle season, however. He shrugged. Not a whiff of a tuber. At the Paradis olive oil mill my nose was needed again. The Paradis family has been producing cold-pressed olive oil for four generations. The olives grown here are picholine, négrette and bouteillan. First a spoonful of picholine, a smooth golden oil with a hint of green apple. Négrette had notes of hazelnut and artichoke, and a pepperiness. Finally bouteillan, fruity and dense. Bending over the spoon I inhaled deeply: freshly cut grass. One of the scents of summer – although not as intoxicating as sun-baked soil mingling with Mediterranean herbs as you drive down the back roads of southern France in an open-top 2CV. HOW TO DO IT Double rooms at La Maison d’Uzès cost from £128, room only and at La Maison d’Ulysse from £182, b&b. Return fares from London St Pancras to Avignon with Eurostar cost from £99. More info: tourism-occitania.co.uk and gardtourism.com and france.fr Follow Lucy on Twitter and Instagram @lucygillmore and search for #olivetravels Words | Lucy Gillmore Images | Getty, ©Gilles Trillard, ©Christophe Bielsa, Getty, La Maison D'Ulysse, Maura Ebbs